Kicking off this week in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Northside Film Festival once again has invited a number of community partners, including Filmmaker, to curate programs of new independent, foreign and retrospective titles. Filmmaker‘s pick is Nicolas Provost’s bracing The Invader, a kind of African immigrant on Taxi Driver, which is receiving its New York premiere. Provost is a Belgian visual artist and filmmaker who recently moved to Bushwick, and he’ll be attending the Q&A. Below are five picks — including The Invader — you can plan your calendar around this week. Go Down Death. Amidst all the cookie-cutter indies, Aaron […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2013As a filmmaker, I find myself more and more impressed with the indie game-making community. They’re supportive of their own at a level I wish we filmmakers were and they’re constantly innovating new ways of distribution. Because of this, it’s become a little quest of mine to learn more about indie game-making and how it overlaps with indie filmmaking. How are they similar, how are they different, and what can each hopefully learn from the other? One place where the filmmaking and game-making ley lines intersect is Fantastic Fest. It’s one of the biggest genre film festivals in the US and […]
by Michael Medaglia on Oct 2, 2012New Directors/New Films is known for bringing some of the freshest, boldest films to light, and not necessarily just for New York audiences. Arthouse theaters around the country often make selections from this well-regarded festival’s programming. The relatively high-brow co-presentation of the The Museum of Modern Art and the The Film Society of Lincoln Center is not, however, generally considered a place to discover new genre film, despite its reputation for supporting ballsy young upstarts. Yet perhaps the increasing cultural and cinematic significance of sufficiently well-made genre films is now keeping them from being overlooked by the festival that saves […]
by Farihah Zaman on Mar 23, 2012There was an elephant in the room during day one of IFP’s annual Marketing and Distribution Labs, and that elephant’s name was Sundance. The majority of the Lab’s 21 attending filmmakers submitted applications earlier this year, each one hoping and secretly sort of expecting an acceptance letter. What they all received instead was a courteous but crushing rejection. Today’s afternoon session started out as something of a venting session. As the lab leaders tried to reassure these first-time filmmakers that their careers were not over, that they had many options still on the table, the mood in the room only […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Dec 9, 2011For the second year the IFP‘s Gotham Independent Film Awards will have an Audience Award. Head over to the award’s sponsor, Festival Genius, to select the five films you want nominated. On Nov. 10, the nominees will be announced and you can then vote for the winner. All 29 films vying for the five nominee slots are Audience Award winners from the top US and Canadian film festivals. Get out there and vote! The Gothams take place Nov. 28.
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 21, 2011The buzz word at this year’s TIFF is “doc.” For the first time in its 35-year history, the Toronto International Film Festival opened with a documentary: Davis Guggenheim‘s From The Sky Down, which profiles the world’s most popular rock band, U2. Filmgoers and critics are also buzzing over Crazy Horse, by verite legend Frederick Wiseman; Samsara (by Baraka‘s Ron Fricke); Tony Krawitz‘s The Tall Man,; and Girl Model by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon. The doc vibe was in the air on Monday morning at a breakfast launch for Focus Foward. Sponsored by Cinelan and GE, Focus Forward invites big-name documentarians such as Morgan […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 17, 2011After multiple announcements of films screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival that spanned over several weeks, this morning TIFF completed their 2011 lineup by unveiling the titles in its Masters section, participants in its Maverick series and the works in the Discovery and free sections. See the complete list of films and fest schedule at the TIFF website. Totaling 268 features and 68 shorts, TIFF 2011 will have 123 world debuts from 65 countries. 13 films will screen in the Masters section, including Wim Wenders‘ Pina and Jafar Panahi‘s This is Not a Film. TIFF’s Maverick series, which […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 23, 2011Sundance is over. Ditto, Rotterdam. With Berlin right around the corner, it seems a good time to ask the question: When is it okay to walk out of a movie? I saw over 25 features at Sundance this year. Many of those films will receive serious releases in 2011 and wind up on “Best of” lists at the year’s end. Some of my favorites are still seeking distribution. I interviewed directors of a number of films. Of the features I haven’t already written about, personal favorites include Pariah, Terri, Catechism Cataclysm, The Mill and the Cross, Hell and Back Again, […]
by James Ponsoldt on Feb 9, 2011As part of our spotlight on volunteerism with Kenneth Cole, here we profile Brenda Berliner, who is volunteering at the Sundance Film Festival this year in the press office.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 26, 2011Since Joe Swanberg’s first feature film, Kissing on the Mouth, premiered at SXSW in 2005, he’s managed to make at least a feature a year, multiple web-series, and found regular launch-pads at SXSW and IFC Films. When Swanberg directs a film, he really functions as a craftsman of the entire work: while he eschews screenplays in favor of improvisation, he works as cinematographer, editor, and usually acts in the film. As the nexus of a low-budget film movement stressing honesty, stories chronicling the lives of people in their twenties, and improvisation (this movement begins with an “M,” ends with “core,” […]
by James Ponsoldt on Jan 23, 2011