Press Releases Archive for November, 2013

OFFICIAL SCREEN CREDITS FORMS DUE DECEMBER 2 FOR 2013 OSCARS

For a feature film to be considered for the 2013 Awards, the film’s distributor or producer must deliver an OSC form and legal billing to the Academy’s 8949 Wilshire Boulevard office by 5 p.m. PT on December 2. I

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THE 29th ANNUAL FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

 – $75,000 in grants to be awarded to filmmakers – LOS ANGELES (November 26, 2013) – Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Film Independent at LACMA Film Series, announced nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards this morning. Film Independent…

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Variance Films to release Eliza Hittman’s Sundance favorite IT FELT LIKE LOVE

Powerful coming-of-age story to hit theaters in early 2014.

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CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES ANNOUNCES $220,000 IN NEW GRANTS TO 23 DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Organization Surpasses Milestone of Over $3 Million in Grants NEW YORK (Monday, November 25, 2013) – Chicken & Egg Pictures today announced the 23 feature-length documentary films that will receive more than $220,000 in grants from its 2013 Open Call. The organization has awarded over $3 million in grants to nearly 160 film projects and…

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Cinema Eye Honors Announces 2013 Heterodox Nominees

Award Celebrates Narrative Features that Blur the Line Between Scripted and Nonfiction.

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Cinema Eye Honors Announces Josh Fox as Recipient of Hell Yeah Prize for Gasland Films

Award Celebrates Intersection of Great Nonfiction Filmmaking and Measurable Real World Impact.

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10 Live Action Shorts Advance In 2013 Oscar Race

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title.

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ROGER EBERT DOCUMENTARY “LIFE ITSELF” LAUNCHES INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN WITH A PRE-RELEASE PRIVATE STREAM TO SUPPORTERS

ROGER EBERT DOCUMENTARY “LIFE ITSELF” LAUNCHES INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN WITH A PRE-RELEASE PRIVATE STREAM TO SUPPORTERS Steve James directs, Martin Scorsese to executive produce On November 20th 2013, Life Itself, a new documentary about the life of Roger Ebert, will launch a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo seeking support for an innovative pre-release led strategy which the film’s producers…

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THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES ANNOUNCES MAJOR GIFTS FROM JEFFREY KATZENBERG AND STEVEN SPIELBERG

KATZENBERG AND SPIELBERG DONATE $10 MILLION EACH TO THE ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES November 19, 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received separate $10 million gifts from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. In recognition of these gifts,…

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Peter Wintonick Mourned By Thessaloniki Doc Festival, National Film Board, Hot Docs

THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY Dimitri Eipides, director of The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, as well as its staff, mourn the passing of Peter Wintonick. He passed away on November 18 in his hometown of Montreal. Canadian Wintonick, a brilliant figure and strong voice of the documentary world, was a director, producer, journalist,…

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Sundance Institute Announces Tabitha Jackson as Director, Documentary Film Program

Will Oversee $1.8 Million in Grants to Filmmakers and Five Creative Labs Annually.

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“Seasoned Film Critics Collaborate to Launch New Movie Review Site Cinephiled”

SEATTLE, Nov. 12, 2013 – After a stealth launch in October, the brand-new film and pop-culture site Cinephiled.comformally announces its mixture of commentary, community, creativity and conversation for people who love film and pop culture. Cinephiled features a staff of writers who have previously contributed to publications as diverse and distinguished as The Village Voice, RogerEbert.com, Film Comment, Salon,…

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Top 5 Nominees For Gotham Independent Film Audience Award Announced

 12 Years a Slave, Fruitvale Station, Best Kept Secret Among Audience Favorites  New York, NY – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier advocacy organization for independent filmmakers, announced today the top five nominees for the 4th annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award, voted on by the independent film community and film fans worldwide.  To be eligible, a U.S. film must…

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Filmmaker, IFP And MOMA Announce “Best Picture Not Playing” Series

  For immediate release FILMMAKER MAGAZINE, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER PROJECT (IFP) AND THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ANNOUNCE EIGHTH ANNUAL BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU SERIES PROGRAM RUNS NOVEMBER 15-18 AT MoMA NEW YORK (November 7, 2013) – Filmmaker Magazine, Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and The Museum of Modern Art announce today the…

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Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 7th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 7th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards Cutie and the Boxer Nominated for Six Awards, The Act of Killing Up for Five After Tiller, Leviathan and Stories We Tell Round Out Feature Film Nominees First Nominees for Television Award Announced Alan Berliner, Alex Gibney, Julie Goldman, Dave Grohl,…

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19 Animated Features Submitted For 2013 Oscar

The 19 submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are…

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FSLC Sets Terrence Malick Favorite “Ben Stiller Directs”

A five-film mid-career look back.

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Participant Media Sets Social Action Campaign For The Square

“Participant Media will mount a comprehensive social action campaign targeting universities, cultural institutions and thought leaders across the country.”

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Press Releases

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon