Festivals
Sundance 2017 Sets Premieres, Doc Premieres, Midnight
Sundance Institute announces the lineup for Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Midnight, Spotlight, Kids and Special Events. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 19-29. Three projects announced today are part of The New Climate, the Festival’s new environmental program: Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman(Documentary Premieres), Look & See: A…
Read the full article »Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie: Toronto Wrap
TIFF is a mess! Well, that’s not exactly true, but the anarchic element that is the Toronto International Film Festival is part of its charm and vitality.
Read the full article »Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie – Part 3
Toronto is one of the fastest growing cities in North America, increasing population by 200,000 a year on average in the past decade with no sign of letting up. The downtown core can’t cope with mounting traffic and new subway routes to alleviate congestio are unlikely. And for locals and visitors alike, it was tougher because six blocks of King Street West (where the TIFF Lightbox sits) were turned into a pedestrian mall with food trucks, vendors, live concerts and teeming crowds. They’ve been doing it for at least three years and there’s no question it adds to the general festival experience.
Read the full article »Confessions Of A Film Festival Junkie: Day Two
The Toronto International Film Festival opening day announcement was all about the escalators not working at the Scotiabank Theaters. Film festivals are not all about the art of cinema. The Scotiabank complex, has 18 screens. The climb is the equivalent of four flights and the grade is as severe as the London Undergroun’sd. I wondered why they simply didn’t reverse the working escalator and discovered they couldn’t because the “up” escalator operates on two motors and the “down” only has a single motor. Even if this is resolved overnight, it still has to be approved by a city inspector and I’m told there’s an epidemic of broken escalators in the city.
Read the full article »Confessions of A Film Festival Junkie: Toronto Day One
I’ve attended the Toronto International Film Festival since when it was still called The Festival of Festivals, a moniker discarded in 1994. There have other changes across the years, of course. It’s been a long time since TIFF could be shorthanded as a “plucky” or “upstart” festival.
Read the full article »Sundance Announces 2016 Juries
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES JURY MEMBERS FOR 2016 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL TAIKA WAITITI TO HOST LIVE-STREAMED AWARDS CEREMONY ON J Park City, UT — Sundance Institute has summoned 23 film, theatre, culture and science experts for jury duty to award 27 prizes at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival,January 21-31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden…
Read the full article »Pre-TIFF, South Korea’s Hong Sang-soo On How He Maximalizes The Minimalism
Pre-TIFF, South Korea’s Hong Sang-soo On How He Maximalizes The Minimalism
Read the full article »Simon Houpt Surveys Canuck Kino Scene, Makes Crisp Points About The State Of North American Indie Cinema To Boot
“Nearly 50 homegrown features will make their debut at the Toronto International Film Festival–but most will disappear without a trace.” Simon Houpt Surveys Canuck Kino Scene, Makes Crisp Points About The State Of North American Indie Cinema To Boot
Read the full article »Toronto Int’l Adds Truth, I Saw The Light, Our Brand Is Crisis, More
Toronto Int’l Adds Truth, I Saw The Light, Our Brand Is Crisis, Hardwicke, Reiner, Haigh, Szumowska, Moretti, Scafaria, Portman, Kawase, Tsangari, Muntean, Chris Doyle, Sono, Tsai, Loznitsa, Gomes, Akerman
Read the full article »Toronto Int’l Gala Presentations Include New Helgeland, Mehta, Moorhouse, Sollett, Vallée
Toronto Int’l Gala Presentations Include New Delpy, Egoyan, Emmerich, Frears, Helgeland, Mehta, Moorhouse, Scott, Sollett, Vallée
Read the full article »Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie: LAFF 2015
The Los Angeles Film Festival took a look at a festival topographical map and considered the needs of its core membership and made some sage decisions. The program is chock-a-block with films by members and other indies. Ideally there ought to be a prize somewhere in this box of crackerjack.
Read the full article »Sundance Seen Part 1
The whispering of powder from a dull quiet sky. Snowflakes fall between the screenings. Then the sun is bright and powder dusts off the slopes.
Read the full article »Sundance Reviews: The Wolfpack, Slow West
Unique ironies surround Crystal Moselle’s bewildering documentary, The Wolfpack, not the least of which is that the film opens with a group of brothers at home re-enacting Reservoir Dogs, a film that premiered at Sundance 23 years ago.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Six Films To Watch At Sundance
Attending Sundance this year means personally jumping through a lot of difficult hoops to make it happen, but this festival is becoming legendary—2014’s iteration eclipsed both Cannes and TIFF combined—and I simply couldn’t skip this year.
Read the full article »Sundance 15 First Sale? Baumbach-Gerwig Mistress America Goes Searchlight
Sundance 15 First Sale? Baumbach-Gerwig Mistress America Goes Searchlight
Read the full article »“Contrary to critics’ easy characterization, Maps To The Stars doesn’t have a satirical bone in its elegiac, messy, hysterical body. I’ve given you the lay of the land as I see it, saw it, and lived it. Maps is the saga of a doomed actress, haunted by the spectre of her legendary mother; of a child star ruined by early celebrity, fallen prey to addiction and the hallucination of phantoms; of the mutilation, both real and metaphorical, sometimes caused by fame and its attendants–riches, shame and nightmare.”
“Contrary to critics’ easy characterization, Maps To The Stars doesn’t have a satirical bone in its elegiac, messy, hysterical body. I’ve given you the lay of the land as I see it, saw it, and lived it. Maps is the saga of a doomed actress, haunted by the spectre of her legendary mother; of a…
Read the full article »Pete Hammond Counts Down The Quality Pics Without Distribution That Are Running Out Of Time For A 2014 Awards Season Release
Pete Hammond Counts Down The Quality Pics Without Distribution That Are Running Out Of Time For A 2014 Awards Season Release With – Fleming On New Purchasing Powers At Toronto
Read the full article »The Torontonian reviews This Is Where I Leave You
Like a middling episode of House-“Arrested Development,” Shawn Levy’s This Is Where I Leave You—adapted from the Jonathan Tropper novel of the same name—is a dysfunctional family dramedy lacking in laughs and an emotional punch to really bring it home. The film gets by on its likable cast, but the fact that this film merely passes despite such a talented crop of comedic talent should speak to a general failure, or at least a sense of disappointment.
Read the full article »How Par Plucked Chris Rock’s Top Five At TIFF, Plus Notes On Other Acquisitions
How Par Plucked Chris Rock’s Top Five At TIFF, Plus Notes On Other Acquisitions
Read the full article »TIFF-Preemed 99 Homes Listed By New Distrib Broad Green
BROAD GREEN TAKES US RIGHTS TO HYDE PARK – IMAGE NATION’S ’99 HOMES’ BY RAMIN BAHRANI AND STARRING ANDREW GARFIELD, MICHAEL SHANNON AND LAURA DERN LOS ANGELES (September 16, 2014) – Broad Green Pictures (BGP) announced today that they have acquired all US rights to Ramin Bahrani’s feature 99 HOMES. BGP plans to release the film,…
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