Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“Black Life Has Always Been Better Than Black Cinema”: Documentary Makers Speak at Full Frame’s “Black Frame: New Voices of Documentary” A&E IndieFilms Speakeasy
One of the few upsides to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival’s necessary pivot to digital was the smart decision to take its A&E IndieFilms Speakeasy discussions online with the rest of the fest – and one step further. Now these always inspiring panels have been expanded to year-round, free virtual events. While the palpable camaraderie at this southernly hospitable fest unfortunately can’t be replicated through Zoom, the insight from the many brilliant doc-making minds Full Frame consistently brings together still shines through. And the most recent edition “Black Frame: New Voices of Documentary,” which took place January 13, proved […]
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The Gotham Announces New Joel Schumacher Mentorship Award
During last night’s Gotham Awards, Gotham Film & Media Institute Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp announced the creation of The Joel Schumacher Mentorship Award in partnership and endowed by MTV Entertainment Group. Honoring the legacy and social consciousness of the director of such films as Tigerland, Falling Down, Car Wash and St. Elmo’s Fire will be a scholarship enabling four undergraduate students to attend the The Gotham EDU summer program, according to the press release, “an eight-week curriculum which will offer workshops to hone career development and technical skills, master classes hosted by industry decision makers, and insight from mentors through one-on-one […]
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Nomadland, A Thousand Cuts, Time Take Top Prizes at a Virtual 2020 Gotham Awards
The Gotham Awards — the long-running event by IFP, which used tonight’s ceremony to formally unveil the organization’s name change to The Gotham Film & Media Institute — has long occupied pole position in the year’s film awards ceremonies, followed by, among others, the SAG Awards, the Spirit Awards and, of course, the Oscars. So too this very different year, when live events are precluded because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tonight’s event was streamed live from The Gothams’ usual location — Cipriani Wall Street — with The Gotham Executive Director Jeff Sharp presiding over ceremonies that saw some presenters walk […]
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“Box Within a Box Feeling”: DP Paul Ozgur on John and the Hole
In Pascual Sisto’s John and the Hole, John (Charlie Shotwell), seemingly unprovoked, drugs his family and tosses them into a bunker where he holds them captive. Written by Birdman co-writer Nicolás Giacobone, John and the Hole is a zoomed in look at the psychology of boyhood. DP Paul Ozgur shares his frustrations with the changing of the seasons complicating shooting and the team’s move away from romantic imagery. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Ozgur: When you get a script […]
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The World at Home: New Directors/New Films 2020
COVID-19 brought two major changes to New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase of emerging filmmakers jointly presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. First, the festival was pushed from its usual March/April perch to December. Second, of course, it moved entirely online. In ordinary years, ND/NF takes place at the two poshest moviegoing venues in New York City, but in 2020, like almost every other communal-cultural event that makes city life worthwhile, it was reduced to a scattering of solitary viewers squinting at their home screens. Happily, the programming was up to its usual high […]
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Dark Streaming Clouds, Virtual Platforms and Coronavirus Tests: The 2020 Year in Film Festivals
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Sorry, Mr Dickens, there was no best of times in 2020 for film festivals. Indeed, some may question whether my annual trip down memory lane is even needed in a year that saw festivals shutting doors, industry-wide job losses and movies continually postponed and then delayed yet again. But with the coronavirus pandemic an accelerant to long-simmering changes in the film industry, for film festivals 2020 may be remembered as a critical inflection point. The cancellation of festivals — or more accurately the move to digital and hybrid […]
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SFFILM Selects Kiran Deol and Jon K. Jones to Receive 2020 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship
Filmmakers Kiran Deol and Jon K. Jones have been selected by SFFILM to receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. The grants are part of Sloan’s “efforts to support programs that cultivate and champion films exploring scientific or technological themes and characters,” according to a press release. The fellowships come with $35,000 grants, virtual residencies at SFFILM’s Film House, access to SFFILM’s Artist Development programs, and connections to a science advisor and others in the Bay Area science and tech communities. From the press release: From an open call for […]
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Sundance Film Festival Announces its Full 2021 Program
The Sundance Institute announced today the full program — all categories! — for its 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Unspooling January 28 – February 3, the festival will occur both online, via a “feature-rich, Sundance-built online platform,” as well as, public health and safety requirements permitting, in person at Satellite Screens at venues across the country. Selected are 72 feature films from 29 countries, with 38 first-time feature filmmakers in the mix. Fourteen of the films and projects were supported in some way by Sundance Institute, and 66 features are world premieres. These films were chosen from 14,092 submissions including 3,500 feature-length films. […]
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Steve McQueen and Ryan Murphy to Receive Tributes at the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen and screenwriter, producer and director Ryan Murphy will receive, respectively, the Director Tribute and Industry Tribute at the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards. “Steve McQueen is a force within the industry, directing one of most impactful and influential films of the year. His bold, masterful storytelling has riveted audiences for the past decade making him one of the most iconic filmmakers today,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP in a press release. “Ryan Murphy has created some of the most cherished and acclaimed television series and films in recent years. Ryan across his many successful […]
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Ring in the New: Top Female Filmmakers of IDFA 2020
As I’ve noted in the past, fulfilling the 5050×2020 Gender Parity Pledge is easy pickings for any nonfiction fest. Within the documentary realm female helmers have long consistently been behind half (and often more) of the highest quality work put out every year anyhow. And this year’s hybrid International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam — which like most non-Europeans I experienced exclusively online during varying states of pandemic lockdown over its ample (November 18-December 6) run — proved no exception to the rule. First there was the wealth of exhilarating new projects by acclaimed veterans to choose from. Czech master Helena Třeštíková […]
