Filmmaking

SUNDANCE PREMIERES, SPECTRUM, FRONTIER AND MIDNIGHT

Sundance has just released the remaining titles for this year’s festival. There are a lot of movies I’m excited to see on the list. I’ll write more about them in the next few days, but, for now, here’s the official spam: PREMIERES500 Days of Summer / USA. (Director: Marc Webb; Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber)—When an unlucky greeting card copywriter is dumped by his girlfriend, the hopeless romantic shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days ‘together’ in hopes of figuring out where things went wrong. Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. World Premiere Adventureland / USA […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 4, 2008 Filmmaking
LISTEN TO ME!

Lance Weiler at the Workbook Project was really kind to interview me about the new issue of Filmmaker magazine as part of his regular download series. I get to talk about what’s in the issue, some of the broader themes connecting the articles, and the general thinking that goes into assembling what’s in the book. You can listen to the interview here, over at TWB’s This Podcast is Being Recorded, or you can subscribe via iTunes via links on that page. One thing I also talk a bit about is our new digital subscription, which we are getting great feedback […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 4, 2008 Filmmaking
REBOOTING AMERICA

I’ve linked many times before to film producer-turned-professor Jon Taplin’s blog, at which he writes cogently about the global economy, politics and the arts. He teaches at USC/Annenberg School, and the university has just put up his lecture “America 3.0: Rebooting after the Crash” on their YouTube channel. Visit the blog and watch the lecture here.

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2008 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES 2009 COMPETITION LINEUP

Moments ago the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening in the competition categories for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place Jan. 15-25 in Park City, Utah and neighboring regions. Some of the titles that jump out for us are Joe Berlinger‘s Crude, R.J. Cutler‘s The September Issue, Ondi Timoner‘s We Live in Public and Tom DiCillo‘s When You’re Strange on the doc side and Cary Fukunaga‘s Sin Nombre, Lee Daniels‘s Push and Ross Katz‘s Taking Chance on the dramatic side. Descriptions of these titles and all the others selected are below. The films screening in […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Dec 3, 2008 Filmmaking
WHAT TO DO WHILE YOU WAIT FOR THE SUNDANCE LIST…

The Sundance list comes out today at 4:00, and we’ll post it as soon as we receive it. Until then, however, I highly recommend you read this excellent article by Eugene Hernandez at Indiewire. It’s titled “A Letter to Filmmakers Whether or Not You Got into Sundance,” and it offers sober advice on what to do in either eventuality. There are thoughts on whether or not to hire a traditional sales rep, what kind of grass-roots publicity you should be doing, and what festivals are upcoming in case you didn’t make the cut. (And, yes, if you haven’t been called […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2008 Filmmaking
JON REISS TELLS YOU HOW TO SURVIVE AS A FILMMAKER

Jon Reiss’s piece on self-distributing his feature Bomb It in the current issue of Filmmaker is testament to his abilities as a smart DIY filmmaker. A couple of links crossed my screen this morning related to Jon, and both offer more ways you can get information from him that will help you and your films. First, Jon has joined Mindshare, the relatively new consulting service offered through the Workbook Project. Visit the page to read more about Jon and other members of the Mindshare team and how you can access their expertise. Second, on his own blog Jon Reiss writes […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2008 Filmmaking
CONGRATS TO THE GOTHAM WINNERS

Congrats to all the Gotham Award winners receiving awards last night. I was really happy to see Filmmaker cover-story Frozen River take the Best Feature, and I was also glad to see Trouble the Water, which we’ve covered in our magazine too, take Best Doc. Lance Hammer’s Ballast nod for Breakthrough Director, and the ensemble tie to Synecdoche, New York and Vicky Christina Barcelona were well deserved too. Finally, as noted below, we were happy to award the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater award to Sita Sings the Blues, Nina Paley’s indescribable, charming and completely original animation that […]

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2008 Filmmaking
GOTHAM BEST FEATURE

Marisa Tomei and Michelle Williams present the award to … “Frozen River.” More later, tonight or tomorrow, when I am not restricted to posting on a Blackberry.

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2008 Filmmaking
GUS VAN SANT TRIBUTE

Sean Penn presents the Gotham Tribute to Gus Van Sant, one of American independent cinema’s great directors, and he nicely notes that 2008 is the year of not one Van Sant film but two: “Paranoid Park” and “Milk.” Ben Kingsley presents the Gotham tribute to his “Elegy” co-star Penelope Cruz.

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2008 Filmmaking
GOTHAM BEST DOC

… “Trouble the Water.”

By Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2008 Filmmaking

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