Focus Features is celebrating its tenth-year anniversary, and the distributor has just placed on its site a suite of videos in which Focus CEO James Schamus discusses the company’s history through its films. After an intro detailing the transition from Good Machine to Focus, Schamus gives us the back story on Focus titles like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Pianist and The Constant Gardner, among others. For the individual videos in the series, visit the 10-year anniversary page here and watch the overview video below.
by Scott Macaulay on May 15, 2012As a child growing up in Scituate, Massachusetts, Nick Flynn (pictured here at left and below with director Paul Weitz) was often left to explore on his own, and he got into varying degrees of trouble. Flynn’s parents were divorced and he had no contact with his father, living instead with his mother, who worked in a bakery. She remarried to a 21-year-old Viet Nam vet, and, after their divorce, Flynn wound up living with her and a new boyfriend — a member of one of the largest drug smuggling rings in New England. Around the age of 18 Flynn […]
by Alix Lambert on Mar 2, 2012The IFP and Focus World are hosting a screening of the highly recommended drama Return, by Liza Johnson, on the online screening platform Constellation tonight. Filmmaker readers receive 25% off, and Johnson will be participating in a post-screening Q&A. From last week’s newsletter, here are the details. (And if you haven’t subscribed to our newsletter, why not? It’s free, and I write something special for it most weeks.) On the heels of its theatrical release earlier this month, IFP will be co-presenting with Focus World a special interactive screening of the feature film Return on Tuesday, February 28th – presented […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2012Focus Features has just uploaded three short videos about the making of Dee Rees’ Pariah, which continues to open around the country. Here are she and two of her actors talking about the homework assignments they received while on set.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2012On its 10th anniversary year, Focus Features is running a poll on Facebook asking its viewers to select their 10 favorite Focus films. So far, the results are favoring Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountain, but my list also includes Greenberg, Lust, Caution and The Constant Gardener. Head over to Facebook to vote for yourself.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 11, 2012Just before its Sundance premiere, the team behind Pariah — writer/director Dee Rees, producer Nekisa Cooper, and actresses Adepero Oduye and Kim Wayans — sat down with Jamie Stuart and me to discuss their film’s path to the big screen. Check it out, and make sure to see the film itself, which opened yesterday in limited release from Focus Features. (Note: video contains one mild spoiler.) [jwplayer config=”FM Player” file=”https://filmmakermagazine.com/videos/PARIAH_FINAL_CUT.mov” image=”https://filmmakermagazine.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Adepero-Oduye-Still.jpg”]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 29, 2011(Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It is being released theatrically by Focus Features on 12.09.11.) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy plays out like a long game of chess whose pieces are constantly being moved across the board without ever reaching checkmate. Each of the many players thinks himself a king, but one by one they’re shown to be little more than glorified pawns. The narrative they collectively form is at once dense but fluttering, broken into tiny fragments whose value as clues and signifiers is constantly being called into question and, once thoroughly vetted, reassembled into something […]
by Michael Nordine on Dec 8, 2011If you’re looking for a gift to give a film lover this holiday season or just want to treat yourself, our annual holiday subscription drive is now online. From today to Dec. 25 you save over 40% when subscribing to Filmmaker. That’s $10 for a 1 year subscription, $18 for 2 years and $6 for a 1 year digital subscription. And here’s where it gets good, all new subscribers will be entered into a drawing for free gifts ranging from an Oscilloscope Circle of Truth subscription, box sets from Factory 25 and Focus Features, a signed Melancholia poster by Lars […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2011Over at the Shadow and Act blog Tambay Obenson has post two clips from one of the favorites from this past Sundance, Dee Rees‘ Pariah. Opening Dec. 28 through Focus Features, the film highlights the impressive talents — and relentlessness — of its writer-director (who along with being a 25 New Faces alum is nominated for Breakthrough Director at this year’s Gotham Awards) and star Adepero Oduye; as you’ll see in the clips and the trailer below. If you’re a reader of this site you already know a lot about Pariah. One of my favorite pieces on the film is […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 9, 2011You may have noticed over on our VOD Calendar the last few months the emergence of Focus Features titles. Though they’ve been quiet about it, Dana Harris at indieWIRE posted yesterday that Focus has in fact started a VOD division called Focus World. The most recent title is the Sundance doc Resurrect Dead. Focus plans to release 8 to 15 straight-to-VOD titles a year. We’ll begin including the Focus World titles in our VOD calendar so be sure to keep an eye out for that.
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 24, 2011