Authors — Scott Macaulay
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“I Actually Feel Like the Firefly Was Caught in the Jar”: Tyler Taormina on His Cannes-Premiering Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
The below interview was originally published May 20, 2024, during the Cannes Film Festival, where Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point premiered in the Directors Fortnight section. It is being republished today, as the film is released nationally by IFC Films, including at New York’s IFC Center. — Editor Whether the sprawling fantasia that is Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point proves heartwarmingly reflective or personally destabilizing in its near-ethnographic study of American holiday ritual will depend, largely, on the composition and size of your own Xmas memories. It’s a strength of the film, however, that Taormina’s expansive […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 8, 2024 -
Anora, Nickel Boys, No Other Land Score 2024 Gotham Award Nominations
Anora, Nickel Boys, Challengers and I Saw the TV Glow were among the multiple 2024 Gotham Award nominees announced today by The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker‘s publisher. Anora, winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or, received the most nominations — four, including Best Picture, Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance and Outstanding Supporting Performance. Among other films making their mark with multiple nominations are Good One, A Different Man, The Brutalist and The Fire Inside. On the documentary side, this year’s Berlin Festival Documentary Award, No Other Land, joins other international titles (Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Intercepted and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2024 -
Watch: Jesse Eisenberg Talks “Holocaust Tours with Lunch” and A Real Pain
In a newly released featurette, writer/director/actor Jesse Eisenberg, actor Kieran Culkin, producer Emma Stone and others discuss Eisenberg’s Sundance-premiering feature, A Real Pain, out Friday from Fox Searchlight. It’s a comedy/drama about two cousins navigating long suppressed tensions while on a Holocaust remembrance tour to Poland, and one obvious question to ask is in what order those two elements occurred within the development process? Was Eisenberg attracted to the Holocaust tour concept first, or wanting to explore the family rivalry? That question is answered, along with more, in the above clip.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2024 -
Production Company MEMORY Launches New Doomscroll Political Talk Show Podcast with Joshua Citarella
The latest venture from MEMORY — the 25 New Face-selected production company of producers Sebastian Pardo and Riel Roch-Decter — has kicked up a bit of mainstream attention this week, with TMZ, People Magazine and Daily Telegraph, among others, covering coded comments by The 1975’s Matty Healy on a certain ex. But the project – the Doomscroll political talk show series/podcast hosted by artist and writer Joshua Citarella and featuring Healy as the latest guest — is not another celebrity chat fest but rather a series of long-form discussions on contemporary politics, culture and theory — “‘Lex Fridman for the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 25, 2024 -
Watch: An Exclusive Clip from Mark Cousins’s Forthcoming My Name is Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock, the director as well as self-analyzing critical observer, is evoked in the latest documentary from Mark Cousins, titled, appropriately, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. During the pandemic lockdown, Cousins was invited by producer John Archer to make a film about the great director timed to the 100th anniversary of his debut film. Cousins set about watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, reading various critical book as well as works by his daughter and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren, all the while filling up notebooks of thoughts, reflections and details. That research and viewing produced a script, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 24, 2024 -
Register Now for Free Hundreds of Beavers Distribution Case Study
Next Thursday, October 17, over Zoom at 2:00 PM Eastern, Jon Reiss — a longtime Filmmaker contributor and author of the new and highly recommended (and distribution-focused) 8 Above Substack — and I will be hosting a distribution case study on DIY hit Hundreds of Beavers with producer Kurt Ravenwood. We’re going to investigate how the Hundreds of Beavers became a breakout success that grossed over $500K at the theatrical box office — more than tripling their production budget of $150K. Kurt will reveal how their team identified, mobilized and grew their audience, how they eventized their theatrical release and created […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 10, 2024 -
Previewing the 2024 Gotham Week Project Market, Expo and Honors
Returning following a one-year hiatus precipitated by the WGA strike is the Gotham Week Project Market, which runs today through October 4 at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. (The final Expo day on branded content will take place at Soho Works.) Produced by The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker’s publisher, the Gotham Week Project Market is the latest iteration of the non-profit’s annual event, which began as the Independent Feature Film Market in 1979, when the organization was known as IFP (the Independent Feature Project). Originally a showcase presenting finished films to buyers, the event has morphed several times over […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 30, 2024 -
“How Would Frederick Wiseman Order This Procession of Images?”: Making Robert Kolodny’s The Featherweight
Robert Kolodny’s Venice-premiering The Featherweight is the dramatic story of real-life boxer Willie Pep as he exits retirement to attempt a comeback in the ring — all as he’s shadowed by a documentary crew. The film’s action occurs two decades after Pep’s 1940s heyday, with Kolodny and his team, who include producer and screenwriter Steve Loff and editor Robert Greene, convincingly replicating the look and rhythms of 1960s verite documentary to meditate on both the past as well as the boxing film’s durability in the present. Wrote The New Yorker’s Richard Brody in his review, “It’s an instant classic of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 28, 2024 -
Dozens of Filmmakers Sign Petition Calling on the New York Film Festival to Cut Ties with Sponsor Bloomberg Philanthropies
On the eve of the opening of the 62nd New York Film Festival, dozens of filmmakers have published an open letter calling on the festival to end its partnership with Contributing Partner Bloomberg Philanthropies, which they write is “directly implicated in facilitating settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and denying Palestinians their basic rights.” Among the signers are over three dozen filmmakers with films in the current 2024 edition, including Mike Leigh (Hard Truths), Julia Loktev (My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow), Neo Sora (Happyend), Basel Adra, Hamdam Ballal and Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), Truong […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 26, 2024 -
Swept Off Her Feet: Sean Baker on Anora
“Tonight, this could be the greatest night of our lives/let’s make a new start/The future is ours to find.” The lyrics of Take That’s 2008 hit “Greatest Day” burst from the soundtrack at the start of Sean Baker’s exhilarating, Palme d’Or–winning eighth feature, Anora. Drew Daniels’ camera tracks across a row of strippers and customers at a Manhattan club before cutting to handheld shots in which one dancer, Anora, or Ani (Mikey Madison), moves from guy to guy, hustling time in the VIP room. (“You don’t have cash? Let’s go to the ATM!”) For the guys, their stacks of twenties […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 18, 2024
