Watch the trailer for James Ponsoldt’s sixth feature film, the girlhood coming-of-age tale Summering. Co-written by Ponsoldt and Benjamin Percy, the film centers on four 11-year-old best friends during the last golden days of summer vacation. Summering immediately evokes the dramatic exploits of Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and the girlish whimsy of Lesli Linka Glatter’s Now and Then. The trailer reveals a dead body in the woods, the friends’ dogged quest to figure out John Doe’s identity and the stress of navigating newfound adolescence.  Summering premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film’s cast includes Lia […]

James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now, one of the most beloved films of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and a summer counter-programming hit, is out today on Blu-ray and DVD. Writing about the movie in this magazine, Scott Macaulay wrote, “Shot widescreen in Ponsoldt’s hometown of Athens, Ga., The Spectacular Now is a wonderfully nuanced tale of two young people falling in love, as well as an honest drama about life choices and the fight to transcend failures that in the haze of adolescence only seem inevitable. Scott Neustadter and Mike Weber’s script is directed with heart by Ponsoldt, and lead actors Miles Teller […]

A new, occasional column here at Filmmaker, “The Shooting Schedule” looks at film production through the prism of a single shoot day. I peruse a film’s call sheet and production report and ask the director questions solely based on what I see there. To launch the column, I couldn’t think of anyone better to talk to than my friend James Ponsoldt, whose third feature, The Spectacular Now, opens today. A contributor to Filmmaker — and a director whose first feature, Off the Black, Robin O’Hara and I produced — Ponsoldt has made with The Spectacular Now an indelible teen romance […]

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.

James Ponsoldt is no stranger to the Sundance Film Festival. His last two feature films, Smashed and Off the Black, both premiered in Park City, with Smashed winning a Special Jury Prize in 2012. The Spectacular Now, Ponsoldt’s third film, premieres today. Working from the novel by Tim Tharp of the same name, (500) Days of Summer‘s screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber adapted the story about a popular high school boy with an emerging drinking problem who finds himself drawn to a girl of a lesser social status. Miles Teller (Project X) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) star […]

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 8:30pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City] This past summer, I traveled to my hometown of Athens, Georgia, and shot a movie in the neighborhoods and streets of my childhood. Our film’s production office was the recently vacated office of Athens’ local heroes, R.E.M. On weekends the cast and crew partied in local bars and rock clubs (the Manhattan, the 40 Watt Club, the Georgia Theatre). I saw my parents all the time. It was a dream — a second childhood, balmy and green, somehow better than the first. I was so, so lucky. But […]

“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. Shooting from mid-July in Eastern Indiana, Scalene director Zack Parker’s Proxy is a suspense thriller about Esther (Alexia Rasmussen), a pregnant woman who joins a support group after being attacked one night and strikes up a dysfunctional relationship with a fellow victim (Alexa Havins). Parker’s last feature Scalene, which is set for release on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD on July 31st, received glowing reviews for its clever use of the fractured narrative – potentially one of the most over-used cinematic devices of the past three decades. Parker has […]