Filmmaking

UNEARTHING GARTH DONOVAN’S “PHILLIP THE FOSSIL” AT SXSW

Garth Donovan’s Phillip the Fossil got good buzz at SXSW, with its lead actor, Brian Hasenfus, picking up a Special Jury Award for Best Individual Performance. I met Donovan on Tuesday and used my Flip camera to ask him a few questions about his movie.

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, DAY 5

Today is the day our film screens at the gorgeous Paramount cinema in Austin. We were there opening night for the raucous screening of KICK-ASS and so it feels like we have big shoes to fill! However a quick glimpse at the theatre at lunchtime with a queue already forming despite the rain, we had some hope of at least filling the 600 seat stalls before we had to worry about the balcony. It ended up being better than we could have expected (I know I keep saying this, but SXSW keeps amazing me!) and we had lines all around […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 17, 2010 Filmmaking
THE SXSW 2010 WINNERS

The winners of the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas were announced tonight. Here is a complete list of the awards: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – Marwencol (Director: Jeff Malmberg) Runner-up: War Don Don (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) NARRATIVE FEATURE – Tiny Furniture (Director: Lena Dunham) Special Jury Award – Best Ensemble: Myth of the American Sleepover (Director: David Robert Mitchell) SPECIAL JURY AWARD – Best Individual Performance: Brian Hasenfus in Phillip the Fossil (Director: Garth Donovan) Feature Film Audience Awards DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – For Once in My Life (Directors: Jim Bigham & Mark Moormann) NARRATIVE FEATURE – Brotherhood (Director: Will Canon) […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2010 Festivals & Events
SXSW BLOG: “THE WEIRD WORLD OF BLOWFLY” DIRECTOR JONATHAN FURMANSKI, PART TWO

THE PREMIERE. I’m not new to the film festival experience but because this is my directorial debut things have really ratcheted up emotionally this time. My sales rep, Josh Braun, and my publicist, Jessica Edwards, have both been working hard to make sure the world premiere of my film, The Weird World of Blowfly, goes as smoothly as possible and has all the right people in attendance. They’re also working hard to keep me from hyperventilating and passing out! It’s a very exciting moment, just before the premiere, filled with anxiety and catharsis. The film is premiering at the Alamo […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, DAY FOUR

Today’s has been one of those days when juggling the demands of a festival and work back at the office is the big challenge. Particularly tough when the office is on a different time zone and you wake to a jammed Monday morning inbox that needs clearing before the day starts here in Austin! But that’s the joy of working in teams if you keep communication and delegation going in clear and effective ways. My business partner Gavin and I caught on up a video Skype chat and went through everything we needed to cover, fellow producer Vanessa went with […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2010 Filmmaking
MORE TRIBECA TITLES ANNOUNCED

The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival today announced its remaining out-of-competition feature film selections in the Encounters, Discovery, Cinemania and Spotlight sections. The Festival will run April 21 to May 2. The Encounters section, comprised of 14 films, include selections include new works by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alex Gibney and Chuck Workman, Academy Award nominee Dana Adam Shapiro, and featuring actors like Ellen Barkin, Liev Schreiber, Melissa Leo, Rashida Jones, Tilda Swinton, and many more. The Discovery section include documentaries showcasing everything from the North Pole and Congressional redistricting to a comedy tour of the Middle East. Its narrative films feature […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2010 Festivals & Events
SXSW BLOG: MRIDU CHANDRA, PRODUCER, “THE CANAL STREET MADAM,” PART 2

Cameron and I went to pick up Jeanette Maier (the subject of our documentary, and the former high end madam of New Orleans) from the airport in our “Madam-mobile” which is what we’re now calling the 8 passenger van that we ended up renting when we got to town. It’s all they had left, because there are so many folks in town for SXSW and of course everyone had already booked the more subtle smaller cars. While we were waiting, the airport cop grilled us about what we were doing there, because apparently last year there were unmarked vans trying […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
ALEXANDER PAYNE’S “THE DESCENDANTS” BEGINS SHOOTING

Six years after making the cross-over hit Sideways, Alexander Payne has begun production on his next film, The Descendants. Announced by Fox Searchlight, the film, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings‘s novel, started principal photography today in Hawaii. The film stars George Clooney as, according to the release, an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. Also starting are Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Shailene Woodley, Mary Birdsong, Nick Krause and Amara Miller. Surprisingly, Taylor is not […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, DAY THREE

Day Three at SXSW This morning it was pretty hard to wake up after just a few hours sleep when we were all already running on empty. But we rallied the troops (just us this time – no Imperial forces!) and made our way over to the Kodak Filmmakers’ brunch. Sadly we didn’t do much networking as we had precious little time to plan the day ahead and catch up on the all-important social media buzz on the film’s first showing last night. We did find 5 minutes for Alexandre to have a quick massage in the Filmmakers’ Lounge though […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
Thoughts on Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone

The genius of the Jason Bourne movies is their welding of existentialist inquiry with the demands of the thriller in a globalist age. Adapted from Robert Ludlum’s series, Doug Liman and screenwriters Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron established the template with The Bourne Identity, locating their film’s MacGuffin not in the outside world but under the skin of its hero. As ex-intelligence operative Jason Bourne skips from city to city, pursuing clue after clue, he is ultimately investigating not a case but his own identity. What kind of man was — is — he? For my money, the first […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2010 Filmmaking

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