Just announced yesterday as part of the 2023 New York Film Festival’s Main Slate, a trailer now arrives for writer-director Raven Jackson’s feature debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. The film premiered at Sundance back in January and will now hit theaters via A24. (Anthony Kaufman recently penned a piece for our Spring 2023 issue examining how A24 is keeping art films alive, using All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and a few of the studios other Sundance ’23 acquisitions as case studies.) A brief synopsis reads: A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature […]
When you make your living in production, the relationship between work and time off can be a complicated one. After months of Fraturdays and Second Meal pizza at 2 a.m., you need to rest, decompress and resume the parts of your life that have been essentially paused during shooting. But stay off set too long and dread can fester—a fear of dwindling bank accounts, falling short on days for insurance and being usurped in your market’s hiring hierarchy. Cinematographer Paul Yee is acutely aware of that delicate balance and how it feels when the equilibrium becomes askew. He took a self-imposed […]
Selling to Netflix for $20 million after an intense bidding war at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a trailer now arrives for Fair Play, the feature debut from writer-director Chloe Domont. Starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, the film follows “an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund [that] pushes a young couple’s relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement.” The film was produced by Ram Bergman and Rian Johnson through their production company T-Street. Fair Play will hit select theaters on September 29 before streaming on Netflix on October 13. Watch the trailer […]
A Hong Kong documentary crew travels to Borneo to dig up the grave of an ancient “evil dwarf sorcerer” for a mondo film on black magic; as you might imagine, protracted supernatural revenge is exacted for the next 70 minutes. This is the gist of Red Spell Spells Red (1983, d. Titus Ho), the second of two Hong Kong exploitation films written by Amy Chan Suet-Ming (the first being the previous year’s Centipede Horror, directed by Keith Li), of whom little is known beyond her proclivity for bug-based horror. Neither film is a major studio production, perhaps because Hong Kong’s […]
Today, Film at Lincoln Center unveils the Main Slate lineup for the 61st New York Film Festival, taking place from September 29 through October 15. This comes after previous announcements concerning the festival’s 2023 gala titles, with Todd Haynes’s May December opening this year’s NYFF, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla as the centerpiece selection and closing with Michael Mann’s Ferrari. “The unsettled state of the industry is an unavoidable talking point these days, but my hope is that our festival, as it has done through its 61-year history, will serve as a reminder that the art of cinema is in robust health,” […]
On this special episode, I visit the picket line at each of the four SAG/AFTRA strike sites in New York City, in one continuous, unbroken audio “take.” Actors Michael Gaston, Clarissa Thibeaux, and others talk to me about what’s at stake, and en route to each location I share my own thoughts on the issues at hand, make some predictions, voice concerns, and offer up my total and complete solidarity to the cause, all supported by the loud and never-ending symphony of the New York City streets! Get ready for the strangest, but definitely most sonic-rich, episode of this podcast […]
In November 2022, the Maryland Film Festival announced it would stop public-facing operations the following year, including the following year’s edition of the festival and new and repertory screenings at Baltimore’s Parkway Theater, in order to “prioritize a planning process to develop a new business model and plan that will chart the future trajectory of the organization.” Barely six months later, the New/Next Film Festival was announced, running from August 18 to 20 in the festival’s previous home, The Charles Theater, just a few blocks south of the Parkway. Leading the charge, or at the very least facilitating it, is […]
This week Filmmaker is publishing three diaries from writers and directors who attended the 2023 Sundance Directors Lab. We’ve already published writer-director Dania Bdeir’s as well as director-writer-producer Masami Kawai‘s. Next up is writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández, who traveled to the Lab with If I Go Will They Miss Me. (He’s also a Filmmaker 2022 25 New Face.) Here’s the description: “Twelve-year-old Lil Ant begins to see mysterious figures — eerie men with their arms spread like wings — around his home. When his father, Big Ant, realizes his son sees these “airplane people” too, their family history emerges and reveals deeper meaning and […]
The Rockaway Film Festival announces today the full lineup for its sixth annual edition, to take place between August 19-27. The 2023 program features premieres, repertory screenings and live performances amid the sand and sea at Rockaway Beach. Screenings will be held at the festival’s flagship outdoor theater Arverne Cinema, which was constructed using pieces from the boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. The opening night selection is Walt Disney’s Fantasia, with shorts by “cine-magician” Oskar Fischinger preceding the film. Other highlights of the festival include the New York premiere of Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which won […]
Today we’re sharing the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for No Sleep Till, the feature debut from French-American filmmaker Alexandra Simpson. So far, $3,735 has been raised by 21 backers toward a flexible $25,000 goal, with 29 days remaining to secure funds through the campaign. Producing the film is Ham on Rye and Happer’s Comet director Tyler Taormina, a member of the filmmaking collective Omnes Films, which appeared on our 25 New Faces of Film list in 2021. Also on board in Zurich-based producer Michael Graf, who produced the Sundance ’23 short White Ant. Here’s a general synopsis and pitch of No […]