CITIZENFOUR
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CITIZENFOUR Wins Big at the 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors
“Eight years ago, the shortlist came out, and the Academy failed to recognize not just three or four good films. They left off all the good films,” began Laura Poitras, the first presenter and undisputed star of last night’s 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, held at Astoria’s Museum of Moving Image. Recounting a bit of the organization’s history before bestowing Finding Vivian Maier with Best Debut, Poitras remarked that Founding Director AJ Schnack forged a necessary “response to what was happening in the community” in creating this close-knit, nonfiction awards ceremony. Cinema Eye Honors is always a pleasure to attend on account of that sense of “community,” […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 8, 2015 -
The 2014 Oscars Documentary Feature Shortlist is Announced
The Oscars have released their shortlist of the 15 documentary features eligible for the Academy Award that have advanced to the next stage of consideration; the final five will be announced along with all other nominations on January 15. The titles and directors below, with links to our previous coverage as applicable: Art and Craft (Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman, Mark Becker) — click here to read a guest post from the directors about completing their film’s score. The Case Against 8 (Benjamin Cotner, Ryan White) — click here to read the directors’ pre-Sundance statement about their film. Citizen Koch (Carl […]
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 2, 2014 -
2014 Cinema Eye Honors Nominees Announced
The nominees have been announced for the eighth annual Cinema Eye Honors (of which Filmmaker is an industry sponsor), which recognize outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking. A quick breakdown: CITIZENFOUR (the cover story subject of our latest issue) leads the pack with six nominations, closely followed by Life Itself and 20,000 Days on Earth with five apiece. Below, find the bulk of the nominations. For more information, visit the Cinema Eye Honors website, which also contains more trivia and facts about the nominees in each category. The Cinema Eye Honors winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 7 at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 12, 2014 -
In the Eye of the Storm: Laura Poitras on CITIZENFOUR
Red tail lights glow in an inky black tunnel. In voiceover, a woman’s voice softly reads. “Laura,” the email begins. The sender writes of encryption, passwords, the government documents he intends to send and the reason he addressed this email to her. “You’ve been selected,” Laura speaks, as the sender goes on to explain that every phone call she makes, trip she embarks on, person she befriends will be observed, recorded, surveilled. “This is a story few but you can tell.” With this cool, measured voiceover, drawing us into her life at the moment it changed forever, documentary filmmaker Laura […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2014 -
Positive Trauma: Editor Mathilde Bonnefoy on CITIZENFOUR
Paris-born editor Mathilde Bonnefoy has criss-crossed documentary and fiction, working with directors such as Wim Wenders (The Soul of a Man) and, most prominently, Tom Tykwer. Her first feature editing credit is the director’s time-bending international hit Run Lola Run, and she has continued to work with Tykwer on Heaven, Three and The International, among others. Long based in Berlin, Bonnefoy, as she relates below, was sought after by Poitras because of her work on Tykwer’s films and the “thriller” nature of CITIZENFOUR’s source material. Below, in the final days of post-production, I speak to Bonnefoy about encrypted workflows, working […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2014 -
Laura Poitras’s CITIZENFOUR Will World Premiere at the New York Film Festival
Laura Poitras’s long-anticipated third film in her trilogy dealing with post-9/11 foreign policies and the security state, CITIZENFOUR, will world premiere in the Main Selection of the 2014 New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced. Poitras had been working on the film following her Oscar-nominated The Oath when she was contacted by a mysterious whistleblower, who later revealed himself to be Edward Snowden. That encounter changed the course of her film, to say nothing of our national dialogue concerning the limits of our freedom in the internet age. From the Film Society of Lincoln Center: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 16, 2014
