Filmmaker Videos
-
Trailer Watch: Todd Field’s TÁR
Todd Field makes his long-awaited return with TÁR, the writer/director’s third narrative feature. The film stars Cate Blanchett as the titular (though fictitious) Lydia Tár, a world-renowned composer who becomes the first female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. TÁR comes 16 years after Field’s previous film, the 2006 psychological drama Little Children, and 21 years after his 2001 debut In the Bedroom (read our interview with Field from the Fall 2001 print issue). Though both films received several Oscar nominations (including Best Picture for In the Bedroom) and overwhelming critical acclaim, none of Field’s subsequent projects have materialized until […]
-
Funding Teaser: Cutter Hodierne’s The Shepherd
Writer/director Cutter Hodierne, one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of 2012 and the director of the short and feature Fishing without Nets, is currently fundraising for a new film, The Shepherd, a UFO thriller to be hot in the Sacred Valley of Peru. Based on a short film currently in post, and co-written with star Amiel Cayo, The Shepherd is about a rural herder searching for his missing daughter who becomes paranoid and beset with visions following a mysterious event. From the press release: The Shepherd is a sci-fi thriller set in one of the most formidable, mystical and lush landscapes on […]
-
Trailer Watch: Owen Kline’s Funny Pages
Watch the trailer for Funny Pages, the feature debut from writer/director Owen Kline. The film follows a young cartoonist (Daniel Zolghadri) whose artistic aspirations go against the conformist sensibilities of his suburban surroundings. Produced by Josh and Benny Safdie, the film will be released by A24 in select theaters and on demand on August 26.
-
Trailer Watch: Jessica Oreck’s One Man Dies a Million Times
Jessica Oreck’s One Man Dies a Million Times premiered at SXSW 2019 but is only now about to enter theatrical release. That’s because Oreck—an adventurous, hybrid nonfiction filmmaker whose previous work includes The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga and and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo—intended for the film to only be seen in theaters beginning in May 2020, a plan delayed by the pandemic. The film continues Oreck’s longstanding professional collaboration with Sean Price Williams (Good Time, Frownland), while programmer Eric Allen Hatch (who’s written for Filmmaker before) is acting as the film’s distributor. From the press release: Alyssa (Alyssa Lozovskaya, of Russian […]
-
Trailer Watch: James Ponsoldt’s Summering
Watch the trailer for James Ponsoldt’s sixth feature film, the girlhood coming-of-age tale Summering. Co-written by Ponsoldt and Benjamin Percy, the film centers on four 11-year-old best friends during the last golden days of summer vacation. Summering immediately evokes the dramatic exploits of Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and the girlish whimsy of Lesli Linka Glatter’s Now and Then. The trailer reveals a dead body in the woods, the friends’ dogged quest to figure out John Doe’s identity and the stress of navigating newfound adolescence. Summering premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film’s cast includes Lia […]
-
Watch: Matt Wolf’s 2012 Short I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard
Filmmaker Matt Wolf has made his 2012 documentary short I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard available to watch on Vimeo. The film utilizes archival recordings of Brainard reading his seminal 1970 memoir-poem I Remember, as well as videos and photos from the artist’s childhood and NYC exploits. Brainard’s artistic legacy is expansive and multi-disciplinary, encompassing collages, assemblages, paintings and drawings, among other art forms. He was also a prolific writer, often using hand-drawn comics to accompany his poetry and prose. Brainard died in 1994 of AIDS-related complications. Wolf, who was one of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Film in […]
-
Trailer Watch: Jeff Baena’s Spin Me Round
With a cast featuring an array of director Jeff Baena’s frequent collaborators, Spin Me Round is likely to fit right in with the filmmaker’s established quirky canon. The trailer shows Alison Brie (who co-wrote Baena’s previous directorial effort, 2020’s Horse Girl) as a woman who wins a company retreat to a so-called “institute” on the outskirts of Florence, Italy—and eventually falls for the extremely Italian CEO. Of course, this idyllic Mediterranean romance quickly gives way to a web of secrets and illusions. Also starring are Aubrey Plaza (Baena’s wife and collaborator since 2014’s Life After Beth), Alessandro Nivola, Molly Shannon, […]
-
Trailer Watch: A24’s Bodies, Bodies, Bodes
A new trailer has been released for A24’s forthcoming slasher comedy Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, which is set to hit theaters later this summer. Directed by Dutch actor/filmmaker Halina Reijn with a script by playwright Sarah DeLappe (and based off a story by “Cat Person” writer Kristen Roupenian), the film follows a “nihilistic” friend group that decides to play the titular murder-mystery game on a stormy night in one of their lavish mansions. What starts as a drug-fueled party game soon morphs into a real-life witch hunt when one of the friends is viciously murdered. Frantic to find the killer and […]
-
Trailer Watch: David O. Russell’s Amsterdam
A ridiculously huge cast — Chris Rock, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert DeNiro, Rami Malek, Taylor Swift, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers and Zoe Saldaña! — are (mostly) all highlighted in this first trailer from David O’Russell’s latest, the comedy/thriller Amsterdam. With cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and production design from Judy Becker, the film is set in the 1930s and deals with three people who witness a murder and find themselves drawn into “one of the most outrageous plots in American history.” Previously, David O. Russell was interviewed for Filmmaker‘s […]
-
Watch: Behind-the-Scenes Clip Showing Tribeca Premiere Life Rendered‘s Use of Unreal Engine
Premiering at Tribeca, Emma Needell’s short film Life Rendered tells the story of a closeted gay Colorado man who lives on a ranch, where he takes care of his aging cowboy father while seeking romance in the virtual world. Set in the near future, the short draws inspiration from the director’s own childhood. “I explored the depths of the internet long before I ever saw a major city,” Needell says. “When I turned seven, my parents built a solar-powered cattle ranch in Colorado. The county was as rural as it gets, where everyone participated in the rodeo on Saturday and […]
