We sent the Fall issue of Filmmaker magazine to the printer last night, and in my Editor’s Letter I riffed on Paul Schrader, who appeared in both our first issue of the magazine as well as its tenth anniversary. The issue you’ll receive in the mail and see on newsstands shortly is our 20th Anniversary issue, and while it doesn’t contain an interview with Schrader, I wrote that it might just as well have. That’s because, once more, he’s reinventing himself, completing a journey that led him from ’70s Hollywood screenwriter to DIY independent filmmaker. That said, the trailer for […]
The San Francisco Film Society has posted the welcome address of its new Executive Director, Ted Hope. Hope talks about why he took the job, and how running the Film Society is a continuation of the passion that fueled his producing of over 70 individual films. He also discusses the challenges facing cinema today. Watch below. San Francisco Film Society E.D. Ted Hope from k9sound on Vimeo.
The deadline of October 22 is fast approaching for the Biennale College – Cinema, a new initiative open to first and second-time directors that will lead to the production of three micro-budget films. In a program led by the Venice Biennale in partnership with Gucci, 15 producer-director teams will take part in a ten-day filmmaking workshop, after which three projects will be selected for further development and production funding in the amount of €150,000. Projects must be able to developed, produced and edited within five months, and they will then premiere at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The Call for Application […]
An older filmmaker friend of mine recently told me about his first experience with Kickstarter. He hated it. It wasn’t that he didn’t get his money–his campaign was actually successful. No, It was something else. As he put it, it was “transparency.” He really didn’t like having to be so open about his needs, about the status of his project, about his desperation to raise money. Transparency can be uncomfortable for filmmakers–too much and you seem like you don’t know what you’re doing, too little and you don’t get the help you need. I guess it’s about finding the right […]
Martin Papazian has been a working actor for nearly two decades, supporting a list of heavyweights in projects like Jarhead and 24. For Papazian, learning on the sidelines from his colleagues and directors became an essential task, and ultimately has prepared him for his most pivotal role yet — a filmmaker. Working at break-neck speed for a total of 19 shooting days, Papazian made his feature debut as a writer/director with Least Among Saints. The film, in which he is also the lead actor, begins with a soldier returning from war and a boy who’s had to grow up in […]
Last week it was announced that Matt Damon, David O. Russell and Jeff Skoll will be presented with career tributes at the 22nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards™. Today, Marion Cotillard is joining their ranks. Cotillard is a critically acclaimed actor, who has built up an enviable filmography, working with some of the industry’s most renowned directors, domestically and abroad. “Marion Cotillard is not only a delight to watch, she is one of the most talented women working in cinema around the world today,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of the IFP. “Her acting choices are always challenging and rewarding, and her performances […]
Switzerland’s submission for the best international picture is Ursula Meier’s Sister, starring the stunning and earthy Léa Seydoux as a Swiss hot mess and Kacey Mottet Klein as her weedy 12-year-old brother who supports them both through petty thefts. It’s a subtle, complex film that avoids obvious polarities of class, family, even landscape. As director Meier said to me recently of the mountain resort setting, and about finding her way into the script by focusing on the location of the ski lift cable cars, “It’s the place where he belongs, between two worlds. And it’s also the rhythm of the […]
The most important thing to know about V/H/S is that it is more than the sum of its gimmicky-on-paper parts, which include found footage film, genre anthology, and snuffy homage to the recent history of lo-fi horror. Although it is not entirely free of the inherent unevenness of the omnibus film, V/H/S works surprisingly well as a whole because of consistency in the aesthetic, clever writing, and tongue-in-cheek humor across multiple directors’ vignettes. The setup involves a group of 20-something delinquents whose primary activity is shooting prank videos of a slightly racier nature than the likes of Jackass. When they […]
My fifth year in a row of attending the Vancouver International Film Festival in my hometown has been unique thus far—I’m at the precise halfway point of the 16-day event as I write this—in that it’s the only time that I’ve already caught many of the films playing thanks to my trip to Locarno in August. This has afforded me the freedom to venture beyond the “festival-of-festivals” programming of obligatory Cannes leftovers and such, to explore, among other things, the Dragons & Tigers section for which VIFF is renowned. For those that don’t know, Dragons & Tigers is a long-running […]
Remember “When Should You Give Up?” It was one of our most commented upon posts here at Filmmaker, an extended conversation about the practicalities as well as psychological ramifications of quitting. Quitting a specific project, that is, not filmmaking in general. The post was inspired by a post by author Edan Lepucki over at the Millions titled “Shutting the Drawer: What Happens When a Book Doesn’t Sell?” Lepucki wrote about how, when the novel she had been working on for so long didn’t sell, she simply packed it in and started working on another. No flogging it for years, exploring […]