Sundance Film Festival

Craig Johnson’s drama THE SKELETON TWINS which premiered this week in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival has been jointly acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for release in the U.S.  Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are planning a theatrical release for the feature film in late summer 2014.  Co-written by Johnson and Mark Heyman, the film stars Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, and Ty Burrell. 

In THE SKELETON TWINS, when estranged twins Maggie and Milo feel that they’re at the end of their ropes, an unexpected reunion forces them to confront why their lives went so wrong. As the twins reconnect, they realize the key to fixing their lives may just lie in repairing their relationship.

Craig Johnson’s first feature film, TRUE ADOLESCENTS, starring Mark Duplass and Melissa Leo, premiered at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival. He has written two films for 20th Century Fox and was a member of the inaugural Fox Writers Studio. He holds an MFA from NYU’s graduate film program and a BA in theatre from the University of Washington. THE SKELETON TWINS is his second feature.

via Collider

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The comedic horror film COOTIES, which premiered to a sold-out audience at midnight this past Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, has been acquired by Lionsgate for release in U.S.  COOTIES marks the feature film directorial debut for directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion.  In COOTIES, a substitute teacher at a new school experiences the worst first day imaginable when he discovers that an outbreak of a mysterious virus is transforming the students into rampaging tykes. 

COOTIES is written by Leigh Whannell (co-creator of Saw and Insidious) and Ian Brennan (co-creator of “Glee”) and stars Elijah Wood (who also produced the film), Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Leigh Whannell, Jorge Garcia, and Nasim Pedrad. 

Producer and star Elijah Wood said, “Even before we set forth on the production of COOTIES, we’ve always seen the ideal home for this film to be at Lionsgate. We could not be more thrilled!”

via DreadCentral

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Martha Stephens & Aaron Katz’s bawdy road trip comedy LAND HO!, which premiered on Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival was snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics for release. SPC plans to release the film nationwide in 2014. Starring Paul Eenhoorn (THIS IS MARTIN BONNER) and newcomer Earl Lynn Nelson, LAND HO! follows a pair of retirees who set off to Iceland in an attempt to reclaim their youth through Reykjavik nightclubs, trendy spas, and rugged campsites.

Feeling disenchanted with life after retirement, Mitch, a brassy former surgeon, convinces mild-mannered Colin, his ex-brother-in-law, to holiday with him in Iceland. The pair set off through Reykjavik ice bars, trendy spas, and adventurous restaurants in an attempt to reclaim their youth, but they quickly discover that you can’t escape yourself, no matter how far you travel.

LAND HO! is a bawdy road-trip comedy as well as a candid exploration of aging, loneliness, and friendship. Iceland’s vast and haunting landscapes—moss-coated cliffs, fog-shrouded mountains, geothermal pools, and otherworldly Northern Lights—form a primordial Eden and the perfect backdrop for Mitch and Colin’s adventures. [ via Sundance Film Festival ]

“Three days ago we saw the movie with an audience for the first time,” said Katz. “Sharing Mitch and Colin’s story that afternoon was just the beginning of an incredible journey for all of us.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Sony Pictures Classics. Finding ourselves in the same company as Woody Allen, Michael Haneke, Jim Jarmusch, and countless other iconic directors is an incredible honor,“ Stephens said, adding, “We can’t wait to get this party started.”

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OF GOD AND DOGS

The jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival were presented at a ceremony in Park City, Utah on Tuesday night.  This year’s Short Film program is comprised of 66 short films selected from a record 8,161 submissions. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to the Syrian film OF GOD AND DOGS.  The 2014 Sundance Film Festival runs through January 26 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. 

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to:
Of God and Dogs / Syrian Arab Republic (Director: Abounaddara Collective) — A young, free Syrian soldier confesses to killing a man he knew was innocent. He promises to take vengeance on the God who led him to commit the murder.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to: 
Gregory Go Boom / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Janicza Bravo) — A paraplegic man leaves home to be on his own.

The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to:
The Cut / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Geneviève Dulude-Decelles) — The Cut tells the story of a father and a daughter, whose relationship fluctuates between proximity and detachment, at the moment of a haircut.

The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to:
I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked / Israel (Directors: Yuval Hameiri, Michal Vaknin) — A man with poor means recreates a lost memory of the last day with his mom. Objects come to life in a desperate struggle to produce a single moment that is gone.

The Short Film Jury Award: Animation  was presented to:
Yearbook / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Bernardo Britto) — A man is hired to compile the definitive history of human existence before the planet blows up.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision was presented to:
Rat Pack Rat / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Todd Rohal) — A Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator, hired to visit a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself performing the last rites at the boy’s bedside.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Non-fiction was presented to:
Love. Love. Love. / Russia (Director: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram) — Every year, through the endless winters, her love takes new shapes and forms.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Direction and Ensemble Acting was presented to:
Burger / United Kingdom, Norway (Director and screenwriter: Magnus Mork) — It’s late night in a burger bar in Wales…

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I ORIGINS, directed and written by Mike Cahill, has been awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and will receive a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.   I ORIGINS which premiered on Saturday at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival has been acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures for release in the U.S. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014. 

In I ORIGINS, a molecular biologist and his lab partner uncover startling evidence that could fundamentally change society as we know it and cause them to question their once-certain beliefs in science and spirituality. The cast includes Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi. The jury presented the award to the film for its “intelligent and nuanced portrayal of molecular biologists as central characters, and for dramatizing the power of the scientific process to explore fundamental questions about the human condition.”

Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier, Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank (2012); Musa Syeed, Valley of Saints (2012); Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Another Earth (2011); Diane Bell, Obselidia (2010); Max Mayer, Adam (2009); Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer (2008); Shi-Zheng Chen, Dark Matter (2007); Andrucha Waddington, The House of Sand (2006); Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (2005), Shane Carruth,Primer (2004) and Marc Decena, Dopamine (2003). Several past winners have also been awarded Jury Awards at the Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for Primer, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Sleep Dealer and the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Obselidia.

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The ‘blackly comedic’ Irish drama CALVARY which screened Sunday in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures and scheduled to be released in the U.S. in 2014 . Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, CALVARY’s ensemble cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Isaach De Bankolé, M. Emmet Walsh, Marie-Josée Croze, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon, Killian Scott, Orla O’Rourke, Owen Sharpe and David McSavage. CALVARY was recently added to the lineup for the Berlin International Film Festival and is the opening night film for the 2014 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

CALVARY’s Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is a good priest who is faced with sinister and troubling circumstances brought about by a mysterious member of his parish. Although he continues to comfort his own fragile daughter (Kelly Reilly) and reach out to help members of his church with their various scurrilous moral – and often comic – problems, he feels sinister and troubling forces closing in, and begins to wonder if he will have the courage to face his own personal Calvary.

“We made a great film. In Fox Searchlight, we now have a great company behind us to send that film out into the world. Thank you, Sundance. Thank you, bourbon! Onward,” said McDonagh.

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Gillian Robespierre’s debut comedy OBVIOUS CHILD which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday has been snapped up by A24 for a planned 2014 theatrical release. OBVIOUS CHILD is described as an honest comedy about what happens when Brooklyn comedian Donna Stern gets dumped, fired, and pregnant just in time for the best/worst Valentine’s Day of her life.

OBVIOUS CHILD opened to strong reviews with THR describing the film as “Raunchy humor laced with gradually revealed vulnerability makes for a winning combination in OBVIOUS CHILD, a raucously funny and appealing female-centric comedy that launches very promising talent on both sides of the camera.”

In the film, Donna Stern is a 27-year-old Brooklyn comedian whose unapologetically lewd, warmhearted wit is pretty irresistible with audiences. When she gets heartlessly “dumped up with” by her two-timing boyfriend, Donna plunges into some light stalking and heavy moping. Hitting a serious low point, she performs a dreary set of break-up vengeance and Holocaust jokes and drunkenly falls into bed with a nice young professional named Max—not remotely her type. A few weeks later, condoms be damned, she’s pregnant. Now Donna, incapable of telling anything but the naked truth when she’s on stage, will resort to any means to avoid telling Max the score. As her date with Planned Parenthood draws near, she must confront her doubts and fears like never before. [via Sundance Film Festival]

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The ‘existential drama’ I ORIGINS which premiered on Saturday at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival has been acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures for release in the U.S. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014. Directed and written by Mike Cahill, I ORIGINS is his second feature following ANOTHER EARTH which Fox Searchlight acquired at Sundance in 2011. The film stars Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun and Archie Panjabi. 

Written and directed by Mike Cahill, and starring Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, I ORIGINS follows a molecular biologist whose study of the human eye points to evidence with far reaching implications about our scientific and spiritual beliefs.

Ian Gray, a PhD student studying molecular biology with a specialty in eye evolution, leaves his lab to go to a party and has an intense, but fleeting, encounter with a mysterious, masked model who escapes into the night. With only a picture of her stunning and iconic eyes, he tracks her down, and they fall in love. Their fundamentally different beliefs about life only serve to intensify their connection, and they vow to spend forever together. Years later, Ian and his lab partner, Karen, make a stunning discovery with profound existential implications. He must risk his life’s work and his family to travel across the world to find the truth behind what he has found and what it may mean. [ via Sundance Film Festival ]

“I am so excited to once again be home at Fox Searchlight, a place that I believe embraces creative passion and the future of cinematic storytelling,” said Cahill.

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Zach Braff’s comedy film WISH I WAS HERE, was quickly acquired by Focus Features after its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend. WISH I WAS HERE is Braff’s follow-up to his indie breakout hit GARDEN STATE. WISH I WAS HERE was directed by Zach Braff from a screenplay he wrote with his brother, Adam; and stars Zach Braff along with Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Ashley Greene, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon and the late James Avery. Braff made headlines when he announced that WISH I WAS HERE would be funded by the crowd-funding site Kickstarter. 

WISH I WAS HERE tells the story of a thirty-something man who finds himself at a major crossroads, which forces him to examine his life, his career, and his family. WISH I WAS HERE follows Aidan Bloom (Braff), a struggling actor who faces crises of life and faith when his father (Mandy Patinkin) is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With his father no longer able to pay for the private Jewish school that his two children attend, and with no gigs on the horizon, he’s forced to home school the kids while his wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) works a desk job she can’t stand. Meanwhile his reclusive little brother (Josh Gad) refuses to even visit their ailing dad.

“We are thrilled to be in business with Zach Braff,” said Focus Features CEO Peter Schlessel. “GARDEN STATE was a huge benchmark in the world of independent film, and we are looking forward to continuing to support Zach and his unique voice. With WISH I WAS HERE, he has once again delivered a film that perfectly captures something essential about our lives, and presents it with the laughter and emotion we all recognize.”

“I am very excited to be partnering with Focus Features as they are one of the biggest supporters of independent film in the business. This is the perfect collaboration for us as they recognize and appreciate how unique our journey has been to get this film made,” says Braff. “Their enthusiasm to embrace our Kickstarter backers, while we fulfill our promises and rewards, made them a natural fit. My 46,520 backers are amazingly supportive and without them this film would not be a reality“

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Lynn Shelton’s LAGGIES starring Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sam Rockwell which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, was acquired by A24 for U.S. release. A24 is planning a summer theatrical release for the film.

LAGGIES is described as a coming of age story about a 28 year-old woman stuck in permanent adolescence. Unable to find her career calling, still hanging out with the same friends, and living with her high school boyfriend, Megan must finally navigate her own future when an unexpected marriage proposal sends her into a panic.

via Deadline

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Just before its world debut at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Pivot, the cable network from Participant Media and Univision News acquired the U.S. TV rights to ‘CESAR’S LAST FAST’ from Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee.  CESAR’S LAST FAST, the documentary about the famed labor organizer, will premiere simultaneously in English and Spanish on the two networks – Pivot and the Univision Network– respectively. 

‘CESAR’S LAST FAST’ follows Chavez on what would be his last act of protest, a 36-day water-only fast to draw attention the horrific effects of pesticide use on farm workers, their families and communities. Using never-before-seen footage of Chavez during his fast and testimony from those closest to him, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee weave together the larger story of Chavez’s life, vision, and legacy. A deeply religious man, Chavez’s moral clarity in organizing and standing with farmworkers at risk of his own life humbled his family, friends, and the world. ‘Cesar’s Last Fast’ is a moving and definitive portrait of the leader of people who became an American icon of struggle and freedom.

“We are extremely happy to be working together with Pivot and Univision,” stated filmmaker Perez. “This is a great partnership for our film in getting it out to our audience and for commemorating Cesar’s inspiring life.”

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DINOSAUR 13, one of the opening night films of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival has been acquired by CNN Films and Lionsgate, and will be released theatrically, with a North American broadcast premiere on CNN/U.S. DINOSAUR 13 is a documentary by filmmaker Todd Miller, who followed the odyssey of paleontologist Peter Larson of South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute of Geological Research after his history-making find: a nearly intact 65 million year-old fossilized skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, they named “Sue.” 

Two years after Larson’s team made the world’s greatest dinosaur discovery – the National Guard and FBI showed up.  Larson and his team spent a decade engaged in an epic “David and Goliath” battle, defending their rights to the discovery – and, at times fighting for their own freedom – battling competing paleontologists, Native American tribal nations, and museums.

The Sundance Film Festival described Miller’s film as one made “with consummate skill.”  Miller reveals the personalities behind the epic controversy over who owned the rights to Sue by “exposing human emotion in a dramatic tale that is as complex as it is fascinating.”

“As CNN Films passes the milestone of its first year, returning to Sundance underscores the strength of our commitment to bringing high quality documentary features to our platforms,” said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.  “Our acquisition of DINOSAUR 13 is a great way for us to kick off the Festival this year, and we think our audience is going to love learning the incredible story of Sue.”

DINOSAUR 13 will be exhibited in theaters in 2014 via Lionsgate.  CNN will broadcast the television premiere of the film later in the year.

“It’s a great honor to be partnered with CNN Films and Lionsgate,” said directorTodd Miller.  “Dinosaur Sue now has another incredible home!”

Lionsgate has released some of the most successful documentary films ever, including FARENHEIT 9/11, the highest-grossing documentary of all time, RELIGULOUS, GRIZZLY MAN, and in partnership with Roadside Attractions, the Oscar®-winning THE COVE.

CNN Films scored with the popular and critically-acclaimed BLACKFISH, acquired at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and broadcast exclusively by the network for television in October of last year.  BLACKFISH was a strong ratings success for CNN, attracting more than 20 million total viewers to see the film on the network since its premiere.

Todd Miller has been making films and short-form content for more than a decade.  His films include GAHANNA BILL and SCARING THE FISH.  His work with shorts has won numerous international and national awards, including CINE Golden Eagle, Telly, Aurora, and AXIEM Awards.

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