Sundance Film Festival
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LIKE SUNDANCE USED TO BE…
From a story in Variety: “The porn industry’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo has always been a colorful, if slightly tawdry, event, a reliable resource for camera crews looking to goose news ratings in the name of covering the multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry. However, in what is the AEE’s seventh year since splitting away from Las Vegas’s concurrent Consumer Electronics Show, the porn event has begun to look a little more like Park City… Like the Sundance Film Festival of a decade ago, the once scrappy trade show has begun to make big deals with corporate sponsors. It’s attracting celebs who […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2005 -
SUNDANCE PREMIERES, SPECTRUM, MIDNIGHT & FRONTIER
The Sundance Institute today announced the Opening Night film and complete lineup of feature films screening in the Premieres, American Spectrum, Frontier, Park City at Midnight, Special Screenings, and Sundance Collection categories of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. According to a press release received today, “The Film Festival opens on January 20 in Park City with the World Premiere of Happy Endings, written and directed by Don Roos and starring Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Tom Arnold. ‘A discussion of American values is at the forefront of many of the films this year, and the humor and compassion with which […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2004 -
MARK SILVERMAN FELLOWSHIP
Sundance has awarded its annual Mark Silverman Producer’s Fellowship to L.A.-based producer Gina Kwon. Formerly a V.P. at Myriad Pictures, Kwon has worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler on his TNT series The Residents and his Fox series American High. She’s most associated, though, with director Miguel Arteta and producer Matthew Greenfield, having production-managed Star Maps, associate produced Chuck and Buck, and co-produced The Good Girl. She is currently producing a Sundance Lab project, Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know, aiming for a Summer 2004 shoot. The fellowship, which is a tribute to the late producer […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2004 -
REMEMBERING LYNN AUERBACH
Lynn Auerbach, the Sundance Institute’s much-loved Associate Director of the Feature Film Program, passed away shortly after this year’s festival following a brief illness. For her many friends and colleagues — including the dozens of young fellows and industry mentors who have passed through the Sundance labs since her arrival at the Institute 15 years ago — the news came as a sad shock. Passionate, witty, and clearly in love with her job of discovering new filmmaking talent and helping them develop their projects, Auerbach nurtured her fellows with equal amounts emotional support and keen advice. Just a few of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2004 -
A PRIMER ON “PRIMER”
Upon hearing the awards news from Sundance this past Sunday in Rotterdam, most of the buyers and sales agents at the Cinemart all wanted to know one thing from me: “What the hell is Primer?” The small minority who caught the film in Utah, though, had a different question: “Why the hell did this film win the Sundance Grand Prize?” International film business types customarily feel somewhat lost and bewildered at Sundance, unable to figure out the shuttle bus routes or how to make it into the evening parties. But to be completely confused by what’s on screen? That’s a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2004 -
THE (LEAD) TIMES WE LIVE IN
In the first post on this new Filmmaker blog, I wrote about how we’d use this space to break out of the quarterly confines of the magazine’s publication schedule. Well, that’s still the intention, but after a few days here at the Sundance Film Festival, this blog has been filling up with news items filed by the New York office while the Sundance-attending staff has been seeing the movies, going to the parties, but not quite figuring out how to get into the rhythm of daily online journalism. One of the good things about publishing quarterly is that it allows […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2004 -
PRODIGY
A debut feature 19 years in the making, Jonathan Caouette’s “brutal and spellbinding musical-docudrama” Tarnation premiered as a rough cut at Mix 2003 and screens in the Frontier section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. (Tarnation was substantially reedited following its debut at Mix, and is tipped for the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes following its screening in Park City.) As per the Mix Festival’s write-up: “Tarnation weaves a psychotronic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, old answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of ’80s camp pop culture and dramatic reenactments drawn from Caouette’s entire life.” “It’s kind […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 20, 2004 -
“25 NEW FACES” AT SUNDANCE
Every summer Filmmaker runs a feature entitled “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in which we try to apply our long-lead editorial approach to talent spotting. We identify promising new writers, directors and actors who are flying well below the industry radar, and several of our pics usually show up at Sundance each year. Here are Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” picks in this year’s festival. The advance industry buzz on The Clearing has been all over the map, but Justin Haythe’s screenplay was the best I read a couple of years ago. It’s a terse, emotionally rich drama about a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 15, 2004 -
Oh, to be a Blogger!
There are frustrations in editing a published-quarterly magazine like Filmmaker. As media cycles accelerate around us, we still publish every ninety days, trying to write intelligently about the aesthetics, business, and reasons for making independent film while pretending not to care that, with our long-lead schedule, we can’t really comment on that day or week’s movie news. The current issue of Filmmaker, for example, went to bed in mid-December, will be first read at the Sundance Film Festival, and will linger on newsstands until early April or so. Which means that meaningful commentary on the latest breaking news is pretty […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2004 -
The 1997 Sundance Film Festival
A decade-long honeymoon is over for the Sundance Film Festival. After a dizzying climb to the top echelon of world film festivals, the event came under withering criticism this year. Post-mortem articles cloaked in outrage appeared around the world. Most critics rightly scorned sub-standard screening facilities, but others took aim at this year’s film crop and the changing essence of the Festival itself. The Sundance Institute, created in 1981, and the Film Festival, in 1985, were designed to “enhance the artistic vitality of American film.” This mission statement often meant supporting films in the Cassavetes’ tradition, films made with minimal […]
by Noah Cowan on Mar 15, 1997
