Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“We Often Had to Reimagine Entire Setups”: DP Adolpho Veloso on Train Dreams
Train Dreams is the story of a day laborer played by Joel Edgerton as finds love and plays a part in the transformation of the American West. The film, an adaptation of Dennis Johnson’s novella of the same name, is a selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres section. Adolpho Veloso, who also worked with Bentley on 2021’s Jockey, served as the film’s DP. Below, he discusses the logistical challenges of two fire sequences and his fidelity to naturalism. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of […]
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“Everyone in the Indie world is Full of Passion”: Producer Julie Waters on Oh, Hi!
Oh, Hi! is director Sophie Brooks’ follow-up to 2017’s The Boy Downstairs about the mismatched desires of Iris and Isaac (Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, respectively) as they attempt to rekindle their romance. The film screens as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres sections. Oh, Hi! is also the debut feature producing credit by Julie Waters. Below, Waters discusses transitioning from the studio system to the indie world and the guiding lights who helped her succeed. See all responses to our annual Sundance first-time producer interviews here. Filmmaker: How did you connect with this filmmaker and wind up producing the film? […]
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“We Prioritized Story Over Logistics”: Producer Grant Ellison on Sunfish
Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) follows a group of characters as their paths begin to cross on Northern Michigan’s Green Lake. Besides being the debut feature of director Sierra Falconer, Sunfish is also Grant Ellison’s first credit as a producer. Below, Ellison talks about becoming a producer as someone whose day job is in policy research and how he was able to learn on the fly. See all responses to our annual Sundance first-time producer interviews here. Filmmaker: How did you connect with this filmmaker and wind up producing the film? Ellison: Sierra and I are high school sweethearts. We […]
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“Our Job Was To Create Two Movies”: Editor Brian Kates on Kiss of the Spider Woman and It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
Screening in Sundance’s Premieres section, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a reimagining of the 1985 film set amid Argentina’s Dirty War, with one prisoner relating his favorite Hollywood musical to the other. The film is directed by Bill Condon, whose credits include Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters, and both parts of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary about the belated singer who drowned at 27 in 1997 featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with those close to him, is also screening as part of the Premieres section. The film marks the return of Amy Berg (Phoenix Rising) to Sundance. […]
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“A Tradition My Dad and I Shared for Nearly Three Decades” | Tadashi Nakamura, Third Act
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Looking back on the production of Third Act, one of the most significant days for me was filming a scene of my dad and me driving to the Rose Bowl for a UCLA football game. This wasn’t just any outing—it was a tradition my dad and I shared for nearly three decades, starting when […]
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“A Spark That Turned into a Wild Creative Ride” | Amber Fares, Coexistence, My Ass!
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? I met Noam in a cafe in Brooklyn in the fall of 2019. We knew each other from years prior when I was living in Ramallah, Palestine, and making my first film, Speed Sisters. She was working for the UN at the time. But when we reconnected in the US, she was at Harvard for […]
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“Let the Weight of the Words Carry the Scene”: DP Bao Nguyen on The Stringer
Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize–winning photo The Terror of War, sometimes referred to as “Napalm Girl,” is one of the most recognizable photographs ever taken. The Stringer, directed by Bao Nguyen (The Greatest Night in Pop) and playing the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premires sections, investigates the history of the photograph and contests its authorship. Nguyen also served as one of three cinematographers on the film, alongside Andrew Yuyi Truong. Below, the three of them answer discuss establishing a consistent visual language and connecting the themes of secrecy and discovery with shadow and light. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer […]
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“Claustrophobic Framing Became the Photographic Heart”: DP Ben Fordesman on The Thing with Feathers
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“I’ve Never Prepped a Movie So Many Times.”: DP Christopher Aoun, All That’s Left of You
Taking place in 1948, 1978, 1988 and 2022, All That’s Left of You traces the history of a fictional Palestinian family in flashback after a confrontation at a West Bank protest. All That’s Left of You is the third feature of director Cherien Dabris, whose Amreeka and May in the Summer played Sundance in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Christopher Aoun (Capernaum) served as the film’s cinematographer. Below, he talks about how he distinguished the film’s four timelines and the difficulties of prepping the film from scratch after the crew was forced out of the West Bank in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. See all responses to our […]
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“Each Set of Rushes Presents a Unique Puzzle”: Editor George Cragg on The Thing with Feathers
