Filmmaking

FILM COMMENT SELECTS RETURNS

One of NYC’s most enjoyable screening series returns this week with what looks like a great line-up of films. Film Comment selects begins tomorrow at the Walter Reade theater, and The House Next Door has an exhaustive preview compiled by no less than four critics. (Thanks to GreenCine for the links.) Head over to the Film Comment link and mark U.S. premieres by Grant Gee, Olivier Assayas, Lucas Moodysson (whose Container is pictured) and others in your datebook.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2008 Filmmaking
FAMILY REALITIES

Anthony Kaufman has a very nice piece in the current Village Voice about producer Paul Mezey, who was involved with two acclaimed Sundance films — Azazel Jacobs’ Momma’s Man, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Sugar (picture). Kaufman calls the group of directors who orbit around Mezey, a group that also includes Joshua Marston and Jim McKay, a “filmmaking family,” and includes some quotes from the producer about the challenges of making “new American realism” within the current climate. It’s really nice to see a producer singled out in the Voice for his great work.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2008 Filmmaking
IT’S OFFICIAL: STRIKE IS OVER

According to Variety, the 100-day strike which began back on Nov. 5 has ended with 92.5 percent of the guild voting in favor of putting down their picket signs and returning to work immediately. Read the full story here.

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 13, 2008 Filmmaking
BE KIND REWIND EXHIBIT AT DEITCH

Though Michel Gondry‘s latest highly imaginative film Be Kind Rewind, which is the cover story of our current issue, isn’t out in theaters for another two weeks, beginning this weekend you can be like Mos Def and Jack Black in the film and create home videos of some of your favorite films (or as they call it “swede”) when Deitch Projects in New York City brings the video store from the film to their gallery. Here’s more from their press release: For the exhibition, Michel Gondry will be recreating the video store in the gallery, complete with a back lot […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 11, 2008 Filmmaking
THE AUTEURS ANNOUNCES LAUNCH IN BERLIN

Variety reports today on the expected launch of The Auteurs, a new online film distributor. From the story by John Hopewell and Charles Newbery: Film producer Eduardo Costantini and computer scientist Efe Cakarel are launching the Auteurs, a Silicon Valley-based global online cinematheque that will stream high-definition independent and classic films. The Auteurs’ main content provider is Celluloid Dreams…. The site will be curated by established programmers: the Latin America section, for example, is curated by Peter Schumann, recipient of the Berlinale Camera, who worked for the Berlinale for 35 years. In consumer terms, the Auteurs will deliver feature-length films […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2008 Filmmaking
THE VIDEOGAMER KILLED THE INDIE FILM STAR

I don’t know what’s funnier in Karina Longworth’s very amusing blog post at Spout, “Five Indie Films that Should Be Video Games” — the five titles or the purportedly real news that Juno is in the process of being turned into a game. The five films are Gummo, Happiness, Redacted, The Brown Bunny and Mutual Appreciation, of which Lombard writes: Think Guitar Hero meets The Legend of Zelda. After every performance, instead of moving on to the next song, you have to wander around Brooklyn, battling your way through awkward encounters with girls and weird older dudes who are friends […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 8, 2008 Filmmaking
The Mountain and the Music

Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 24, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Nick Dawson interviewed Beaufort co-writer-director Joseph Cedar for our Web Exclusives section of the Website. Beaufort is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. This was a particularly exceptional year for Israeli cinema. Dror Shaul’s Sweet Mud won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance; Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret’s Jellyfish took away two prizes, including the coveted Caméra d’Or, at Cannes; and Eytan Fox’s The Bubble played to great acclaim […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 8, 2008 Directing
Speak, Memory

Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 24, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Scott Macaulay interviewed Away From Her director Sarah Polley for the Spring ’07 issue. Away From Her is nominated for Best Lead Actress (Julie Christie) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sarah Polley). Whether it is as the paralyzed survivor in Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter or the zombie apocalypse heroine in Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, Sarah Polley brings something fascinating yet almost indescribable to all of her roles. […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 8, 2008 Directing
Senior Moments

Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 24, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Ray Pride interviewed The Savages writer-director Tamara Jenkins for the Fall ’07 issue. The Savages is nominated for Best Lead Actress (Laura Linney) and Best Original Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins). Note-perfect, Tamara Jenkins’s The Savages was one of Sundance 2007’s stellar surprises. Where another unlikely gem from the festival, Once, was bittersweet in its simple romance, Jenkins’s long-in-coming sophomore directorial entry (after 1998’s Slums of Beverly Hills) is a complex mesh of […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 8, 2008 Directing
New Beginnings

Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 24, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Jason Guerrasio interviewed The Kite Runner director Marc Forster for our Web Exclusives section of the Website. The Kite Runner is nominated for Best Original Score (Alberto Iglesias). When Khaled Hosseini sat down to write his first novel he imagined a story that would shed light on the culture, beauty and history of his home country and have people see it in a different light than its usual portrayal on the […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 8, 2008 Directing

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