I didn’t know documentary film editor Karen Schmeer, but I certainly knew her work. Her first credited feature, Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, is one of my all-time favorite documentaries and a Filmmaker magazine cover story. Brilliantly constructed, it weaves portraits of four oddball individualists and dreamers into a single meditative essay on creativity, self-worth and man’s desire for legacy. The film would be an incredible feat for even the most seasoned of editors; that she cut it early in her career is astounding to me. She also edited The Fog of War and Mr. Death (again, […]
An apology for this brief plug, but now that Sundance is over I wanted to write this short blog post on the difference between Filmmaker in print and Filmmaker online. As most of you know from reading this site, we make about 50% of each issue available online. (We also put up a lot of stuff — this blog, the Director Interviews, our Videos, our Web Exclusives — which is not in the magazine.) Here’s a breakdown of articles in the current issue that aren’t available online: 1. The longest article we’ve ever published — almost 10,000 words — is […]
When Danish Zentropa director Mads Brugger decided to take himself and two Korean-Danish comedians to North Korea under the guise of a fake comedy project, he employed what he thought might be the magic word for repressive regimes seeking international image burnishing: “cultural exchange.” The film opens with a shot of Brugger, lying on a hotel bed, calmly reading Kim Jong-Il’s official Instruction Manual for Film Directing. The secret police who watched this footage every night apparently had no objection. What they somehow did not expect or anticipate was that Brugger would one day turn this footage into a feature […]
Announced moments ago, the Sundance Film Festival awards were given out in Park City. The dramatic Grand Jury prize went to Debra Granik‘s Winter’s Bone (pictured), which was picked up by Roadside Attractions earlier in the day. Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington‘s look at a platoon stationed in Afghanistan, Restrepo, won the Grand Jury doc prize. Josh Radnor‘s relationship dramedy happythankyoumoreplease took the dramatic audience award, and Davis Guggenheim‘s Waiting For Superman, which was the first big acquisition of the fest, won the documentary audience award. And winning the first ever best of the NEXT films was Todd Barnes & […]
Buyers are still hard at work in Park City as we close in on the Sundance awards ceremony later tonight. Variety reports that Roadside Attractions has acquired Debra Granik‘s Winter’s Bone. Deal is for low to mid six figures. Roadside plans for a summer release. Sony Classics, Apparition, Samuel Goldwyn Films, among others, were also vying for the film. Winter’s Bone follows a young mother who goes in search for her father, a meth dealer who jumped bail.
According to Variety, Michael Winterbottom‘s adaptation of Jim Thompson‘s novel, The Killer Inside Me sold to IFC in the early hours this morning for $1.5 million. The film, which had mixed reviews at Sundance for it’s controversial scenes of violence and sexual content, stars Casey Affleck as small town psychotic sheriff Lou Ford. Films also stars Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson and Bill Pullman. The film will be released in the late summer theatrically and through VOD. Read how Winterbottom adapted Thompson’s novel to the screen.
This is the fifth of our posts from guest blogger Ron Simons, who produced Tanya Hamilton’s Sundance Competition film Night Catches Us. Scroll back through the blog for his earlier entries. I’ve finally transitioned into the cooler, calmer phase of the festival. The weather is warmer and the snow is starting to melt (including the gargantuan stalactites hanging from the roof edges of about town). No more press interviews in backrooms of galleries, TV studios or revamped office spaces. Gone are the paparazzi blocking traffic to get the best shot of Ben Affleck, Ryan Gosling or Paris Hilton. Exit the […]
As the Sundance Film Festival comes to a close The Weinstein Company has acquired Derek Cianfrance‘s Blue Valentine in a low seven figure deal. Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, Cianfrance’s (named to our “25 New Faces” list this past summer) look at a marriage crumbling received positive reviews when it screened at the fest. Numerous outlets are also reporting that TWC is close to nabbing another hot commodity from the fest: Amir Bar-Lev‘s powerful doc, The Tillman Story.
The extension of the Downfall meme to the iPad was inevitable, but, still, nearly a million views in two days?
I posted a vaguely impressed impression of the iPad yesterday just after the Apple press conference was over. Of course, 24 hours later, I’m thinking about the details, good and bad. The big downer is Apple’s reintroduction of the 4:3 format (1024×768). That means that watching a 16:9 movie on your iPad will give you big black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Obviously, Apple had to make a choice regarding screen dimensions and they went with one that trades off in film and TV what it will gain with other forms of content. Nonetheless, it’s not […]