James Ponsoldt’s new movie, The Spectacular Now, is hard to talk about. Just describing its plot — a slacker high-school senior on the romantic rebound falls for the school’s shy girl as they bond over parent problems — doesn’t do it justice. And if you throw in notice of lead character Sutter’s drinking problem, then you prompt speculation about Ponsoldt’s choice of material. This is his third movie in the row about an alcoholic! (Full disclosure: Robin O’Hara and I produced the first, Off the Black.) Step into The Spectacular Now, however, and you’ll find yourself drawn into a world […]

Last year, when I wrote about the Sundance Film Festival, I did so through the prism of its New Frontier section, using artists’ dialogue with mainstream filmmaking as a way to work my way into a broader discussion of the films found at the rest of the festival. Another year, I used the “revolution” theme of Sundance’s pre-film bumpers to discuss evolving changes in the festival’s self-definition. This year, when I interviewed festival director John Cooper before the 2013 edition, I asked him if there were any themes running through the curation, and he mentioned a “fearless” quality among the […]

The day Sundance began, Daily Variety’s lead article kicked off with: “In this brave new indie world of VOD, shifting release windows, RED cameras [italics mine] and social media marketing…” I was struck by how little any of this has to do with indie filmmaking alone. As a token of digital revolution, RED cameras are so five years ago. It’s hard to storm the ramparts when last year’s #5 and #7 box office hits were shot with RED Epics (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Amazing Spider-Man). In fact, not only were last year’s #1 and #4 hits filmed with […]

If you’re shooting a full-length feature, the cost of purchasing, developing and transferring your film to digital can easily be more than the cost of a digital camera. (If your shooting ratio is 4:1, you’d spend over $10,000 for 16mm and $20,000 for 35mm.) And in some cases more than the total budget of your film. It’s no wonder then, that digital cameras have become dominant in indie film production, and that RED, with its head start as an “affordable” digital cinema camera, has become dominant at Sundance. Ted Schilowitz, co-founder of RED Digital Cinema, noted that “there are so […]

Tonight at a ceremony in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival handed out the awards for this year’s edition. The night’s top awards went to Fruitvale — directed by one of the “25 New Faces” of 2012, Ryan Coogler — in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and the documentary Blood Brother, directed by Steve Hoover (previous a guest blogger for the Filmmaker site), with both movies taking both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award in their respective categories. Fruitvale, based on the true story of the killing of Oscar Grant, was picked up by The Weinstein Company earlier in the week, following a frenzy […]

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Frances Bodomo, writer/director of the short Boneshaker, offers her recommendation.

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Hannah Fidell, writer/director of A Teacher, talks about the films she is looking forward to seeing.

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here James Ponsoldt, director of The Spectacular Now, offers his recommendations.

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Filmmaker magazine asked a series of directors to talk about the films they were excited about at this year’s event. Here Jonas Carpignano, writer/director of the forthcoming feature A Chjàna, offers his recommendations.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 26, 3:30pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] What I had to sacrifice to make Muscle Shoal was being there for my children. I am a single father of two awesome boys. They need me and I need them. They are my most precious blessing and they make my life rich. They miss me when I’m gone and I miss them. Gone for them isn’t just me being away on a shoot, it’s being at the office late at night trying to make a deadline or trying to press ahead hard when the inspiration is flowing. It’s having to […]