Gareth Evans’s THE RAID 2, scheduled to World Premiere at the upcoming 2014 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the United States on March 28, 2014. THE RAID 2 picks up right where the first film left off and follows Rama (Iko Uwais) as he goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate in order to protect his family and uncover the corruption in his own police force.
http://youtu.be/3MuXrN8L9ro
Amidst all the controversy surrounding A&E reality TV show DUCK DYNASTY star Phil Robertson’s comments about gays and minorities to GQ magazine and the network’s decision to suspend him, now reports are circulating that the creator and producer of the series, Scott Gurney, once starred in a popular independent gay movie. Scott Gurney starred in THE FLUFFER, “a terrific, gripping and sexy fictional (non-hardcore) drama that manages to both expose the nasty underbelly of the gay porn industry and show its allure” that debuted at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. In the film, he played a gay-for-pay porn star who’s addicted to crystal meth.
http://youtu.be/DyqJl2DZHu4
Brendan Gleeson stars as Father James in CALVARY
The ‘darkly comic thriller’ ‘CALVARY’ that reunites writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson has been unveiled as the opening gala for the 2014 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival on Thursday, February 13th, 2014. In addition to unveiling the opening film, the festival announced that ‘NO LIMBS, NO LIMITS’, ‘TRACKS’, ‘BORGMAN’ and ‘TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM’ will screen at the festival taking place from February 13th to 23rd, 2014.
In ‘CALVARY’, Brendan Gleeson stars as Father James, a priest who has a week to put his affairs in order after being told he is marked for murder during a confession. Set against the stunning beauty of Ireland’s West Coast, the film also stars Kelly Reilly (‘Sherlock Holmes’), Domhnall Gleeson (‘About Time’), Chris O’Dowd (‘Bridesmaids’), Dylan Moran (‘Black Books’) and Aidan Gillen (‘Game of Thrones’).
The other four films are:
‘NO LIMBS, NO LIMITS’ – An intimate family portrait of young Corkwoman Joanne O’Riordan,who was born with no arms and legs as a result of the extremely rare ‘Total Amelia’ syndrome. (directed by O’Riordan’s brother, Steven)
‘TRACKS’ – A beautifully composed and magnificently performed story about a young woman’s nine-month trek across the Australian desert.
‘BORGMAN’ – An unsettling, blackly comic fable from veteran Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam.
‘TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM’ – A moving and joyous behind-the-scenes documentary about the singers who provide backing vocals to the stars.
FRUITVALE STATION
FRUITVALE STATION, NEBRASKA made the list of official selections of AFI Awards 2013, of 10 outstanding films and 10 outstanding television programs deemed culturally and artistically representative of the year’s most significant achievements in the art of the moving image. AFI will honor the top 10 films and tv programs on Friday, January 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR
12 YEARS A SLAVE
AMERICAN HUSTLE
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
FRUITVALE STATION
GRAVITY
HER
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
NEBRASKA
SAVING MR. BANKS
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
THE AMERICANS
BREAKING BAD
GAME OF THRONES
THE GOOD WIFE
HOUSE OF CARDS
MAD MEN
MASTERS OF SEX
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
SCANDAL
VEEP
1982 written and directed by Tommy Oliver won the Marquee Feature Audience Award
The 20th Austin Film Festival (AFF) which ran October 24 to 31, 2013, announced the 2013 Audience Award winners, voted on by festival audience members. 1982 written and directed by Tommy Oliver and starring Hill Harper, Bokeem Woodbine, Quinton Aaron, and Wayne Brady, won the Marquee Feature Audience Award. in the film, a father protects his gifted daughter from the insidious crack cocaine epidemic which has literally come home via her drug-addicted mother. BESIDE STILL WATERS won the Narrative Feature Audience Award and ALL OF ME tied with THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF DORIS PAYNE to win the Documentary Feature Audience Award. AFF also announced its dates for the 21st Annual Austin Film Festival and Conference for October 23 to 30, 2014.
Marquee Feature Audience Award:
1982
Writer/ Director: Tommy Oliver
Starring Hill Harper, Bokeem Woodbine, Quinton Aaron, and Wayne Brady
Narrative Feature Audience Award:
BESIDE STILL WATERS
Writers: Chris Lowell, Mohit Narang
Director: Chris Lowell
Starring: Reid Scott, Brett Dalton, Beck Bennett, Ryan Eggold, and Britt Lower
In this BIG CHILL for Generation Y, a group of childhood friends come together for the last time at the scenic lake house where they all grew up, to comfort each other, rekindle old flames and drunkenly stumble down memory lane. The house brings out the adolescence in all of them, and what follows is a weekend full of drinking and dancing. Laughter and secrets. Sex, drugs, mischief and regret. Equally full of humor and heartbreak, BESIDE STILL WATERS explores the past and getting past it.
Documentary Feature Audience Award: (tie)
(tie) ALL OF ME
Director: Alexandra Lescaze
The ‘Girls’ have been friends for years, bonding over hopes, dreams, food, and the shared experience of being very obese. They met via the Austin chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) and partied together among Austin’s Big Beautiful Women community. Meanwhile they tried every diet and every pill. Now going through the life-changing process of weight-loss surgery, their center has shifted and upset everything they knew about happiness, friendship and love.
(tie) THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF DORIS PAYNE
Directors: Kirk Marcolina, Matthew Pond
Find out how a poor, single, African-American mother from segregated 1930s America winds up as one of the world’s most notorious jewel thieves. A glamorous 80-year-old, Doris Payne is as unapologetic today about the $2 million in jewels she’s stolen over a 60-year career as she was the day she stole her first carat. With Doris now on trial for the theft of a department store diamond ring, we probe beneath her consummate smile to uncover the secrets of her trade and what drove her to a life of crime. Stylized recreations, an extensive archive and candid interviews reveal how Payne managed to jet-set her way into any Cartier or Tiffany’s from Monte Carlo to Japan and walk out with small fortunes. This sensational portrait exposes a rebel who defies society’s prejudices and pinches her own version of the American Dream while she steals your heart.
Comedy Vanguard Audience Award:
THE GOLDEN SCALLOP
Writer: Kevin Harrigan
Director: Joseph Laraja
Starring: James Cosmo, Nicole Steinwedell, and Tobias Jelinek
Three fried-fish restaurants’ struggles, passions and eccentricities are documented at the ultimate short order cooking contest, The Golden Scallop Championship. A food truck, a novelty eatery, and old favorite all vie for victory, but all their practice cannot prepare them for their head-to-head-to-head showdown. For fans of BEST IN SHOW and WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, this mockumentary-style film is full of battles and battered cod.
Dark Matters Audience Award:
BLOOD PUNCH
Writer: Eddie Guzelian
Director: Madellaine Paxson
Starring: Olivia Tennet, Cohen Holloway, Ari Boyland, Milo Cawthorne, Adelaide Kane, and Fleur Saville
A mysterious “bad girl” checks herself into rehab to find someone who can cook meth for her. After breaking him out, she draws him into a dangerous love triangle with her abusive dirty cop boyfriend and their get-rich-quick drug score plan. Everything goes terribly wrong, and then the next day, they do it again in this genre-bending neo-noir time-shifting whiplash
Texas Independents Audience Award:
SOMBRAS DE AZUL
Writer/Director: Kelly Daniela Norris
Starring: Seedne Bujaidar, Yasmani Guerrero, Charlotta Mohlin, and Lieter Ledesma Alberto
In the wake of her brother’s suicide, a young Mexican woman, Maribel, books a one-way ticket to the place he’d always dreamt of going – Cuba. Wandering the streets of Havana, Maribel attempts to escape her grief, but the city’s rhythms and strangers just serve to trigger tortured ruminations and memories of him. It is only when she bonds with Eusebio – a petty thief and skilled woodcraftsman – that Maribel begins to face her demons. (In Spanish with English Subtitles)
Write/Rec Audience Award:
SPEAK NOW
Writer: Erin Cardillo
Director: Noah Harald
Starring: Rosie Mattia, Jason Drumwright, Jayme Lynn Evans, Eric Goldrich, Rane Jameson, Russell Taylor, and Erika Ward
SPEAK NOW is a romantic dramedy about a group of high school friends reuniting for a wedding. Setting aside their personal dramas to support the union of Tommy and Anna was the intention of the wedding guests, but as the night unfolds old offenses and newly mounting scandal plunge the group back into a pool of high-school drama. One wedding will challenge the beliefs and change the lives of all in attendance… forever. This feature film was shot in three days with all the dialogue improvised by the actors.
Narrative Short Audience Award:
MR. INVISIBLE
Writer: Richard Sainsbury
Director: Greg Ash
Narrative Student Short Audience Award:
COOTIE CONTAGION
Writer/Director: Josh Smooha
Animated Short Audience Award:
MIA
Writers: Wouter Bongaerts, Bert Vandecasteele
Director: Wouter Bongaerts
Documentary Short Audience Award:
THE GUIDE
Director: Jessica Yu
Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) will world premiere 11 short films documenting a project by a group of nationally and internationally renowned artists commissioned by The Arts Initiative and curated by Primary Projects, at the Festival’s 31st edition taking place March 7 to16, 2014.
Each of the 11 films will individually document work created for The Arts Initiative project by artists Daniel Arsham, Bhakti Baxter, Jim Drain, Friendswithyou, Cody Hudson, Alvaro Ilizarbe, Andrew Nigon, Kenton Parker, Bert Rodriguez, Jen Stark and Austyn Weiner. The films, also commissioned by The Arts Initiative, are produced by Grela Orihuela and directed by Bill Bilowit of Miami’s Wet Heat Project. Bilowit’s feature-length documentary about Bert Rodriguez, Making Sh*t Up, world premiered at MIFF’s 28th edition in 2011.
“Bill Bilowit not only documents the artistic process, he also captures the emotional essence an artist finds in their work,” said MIFF executive director Jaie Laplante. “We are thrilled to be able to share Bill’s new valentines to some of the top artists of our day, as he brings his own artist’s eye to the combined vision of Arthur Weiner and Books IIII Bischof.”
“Each of the artists in this project have in their own way touched Miami,” said The Arts Initiative founder Arthur Weiner. “I am honored and humbled to see these documentaries debut at Miami International Film Festival. It’s an elegant way to celebrate both the work and the fraternity formed by this group while creating their brilliant pieces over the summer at Fashion Outlets of Chicago.”
The 11 contemporary artists were chosen to enrich and enliven Fashion Outlets of Chicago, a newly-opened, $250 million, multi-level luxury outlet mall. The ambitious project was curated by Miami-based collective Primary Projects, founded by Books IIII Bischof, Typoe and Cristina Gonzalez, on behalf ofThe Arts Initiative, a newly formed collective dedicated to placing highly interactive visual art in public venues, founded by AWE Talisman chairman Arthur Weiner.
Since the beginning of June, filmmakers Bilowit and Orihuela have been in production on the documentary series, capturing each of the site-specific, large-scale installations. The caliber of artists is unusual for a retail center, and Wet Heat Project became involved as the developers of the windy city’s Fashion Outlets sought to fuse fashion and art in a new and innovative way – “artist-driven ideas actively integrated into the architectural framework and viewing space.”
The 11 documentary shorts will world premiere at MIFF’s 31st edition (March 7-16, 2014) and be programmed to individually precede the documentary feature films competing in MIFF’s Knight Documentary Competition program.
The complete line-up of the 31st Miami International Film Festival will be announced in late January 2014.
Check out the awesome trailer for the horror film RUN LIKE HELL, the first film from director James Thomas of Two Guys and a Film. The film centers on Luke, Maggie, Dan, and Sam, two young married couples in the middle of a cross-country road trip, when they are sidetracked in the desert town of Spaulding. Their car is stolen, prompting them to be taken in by local residents Harold and Nancy. What starts as a place to rest their heads and regroup turns into a fight for their lives, utilizing any and all attempts to Run Like Hell.
“Run Like Hell is an action-packed horror film that will make you question taking that next road trip. The film shows the gritty side of humanity and has an eerie realism to it that makes you wonder if this type of thing actually happens. An interesting point we make in the film is that horrifying things don’t only happen at night or when no one is looking. They can be happening all around us, at any moment. Sometimes people we would call normal can even do them. And that is what makes them frightening.” – James Thomas, director
http://youtu.be/n1OCK2ADARA
via DreadCentral
image via Facebook
ILO ILO
The 22nd Philadelphia Film Festival announced the 2013 Jury Award winners; ILO ILO won the award for Best Narrative Feature Film, and GOD LOVES UGANDA won the award for Best Documentary Feature Film. Set in the late 1990s, the moving relationship between a rebellious Singaporean boy and his new Filipino nanny is lovingly captured in director Anthony Chen’s ILO ILO, winner of the Camera d’Or for Best First Feature at 2013 Cannes. In GOD LOVES UGANDA, the effects of the American evangelical fundamentalist movement on the religious and political climate of Uganda are scrutinized in this eye-opening documentary by Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams.
LET THE FIRE BURN directed by Jason Osder which examines the fatal standoff between Philadelphia law enforcement and the black militant liberation group MOVE, won the Pinkenson Award for Best Local Feature. The Archie Award for Best First Feature went to HARMONY LESSONS directed by Emir Baigazin, about the squabbles of schoolboys in a village in the steppes of rural Kazakhstan, which then take a dark tragic turn.
2013 Philadelphia Film Festival Jury Award Winners:
Narrative Feature Award
Best Narrative Feature – ILO ILO (dir. Anthony Chen)
Honorable Mention for Best Ensemble – WE ARE THE BEST! (starring Mira Birkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne)
Honorable Mention for Best Director – VIC + FLO SAW A BEAR (dir. Denis Côté)
Honorable Mention for Best Cinematography – HARMONY LESSONS (cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev)
Documentary Feature Award
Best Documentary Feature – GOD LOVES UGANDA (dir. Roger Ross Williams)
Honorable Mention – 12 O’CLOCK BOYS (dir. Lotfy Nathan)
Honorable Mention for Best Director – CAUCUS (dir. AJ Schnack)
Pinkenson Award for Best Local Feature
LET THE FIRE BURN
Best Feature – LET THE FIRE BURN (dir. Jason Osder)
Honorable Mention – THE DISCOVERERS (dir. Justin Schwarz
Archie Award for Best First Feature
HARMONY LESSONS
Best Feature – HARMONY LESSONS (dir. Emir Baigazin)
Short Award
Best Short – RPG OKC (dir. Emily Carmichael)
Honorable Mention – THE GLOBE COLLECTOR(dir. Summer De Roche)
THE GREAT FALLACY, The Milking of the Puerto Rican Colony, (LA GRAN FALACIA), a new film by Paco Vázquez will open at the Quad Cinema in NYC on Friday, November 15, 2013. THE GREAT FALLACY is a documentary about the politics, economics and the social fabric of Puerto Rico today, especially as it relates to Law 7 and its impact on labor unions and the public sector.
THE GREAT FALLACY exposes conflicts and abuses in the public and private economy and explores several possible solutions to inspire reconsideration of the relationship among welfare and wages, the national balance of payments, and the individual incentive to work. Although this film is aimed at Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland (more than 5 million), any audience can appreciate its relevance to the social upheavals in the world today. The film seeks to provide the Right with a critical rationalization for continued reconsideration of policy, and the Left with information, to broaden their perception of the structures of government spending. Economic stimulus, and economic and social independence.
http://youtu.be/cF6h7Hck5Gk
Nine individual screenwriters and one writing team have been selected as finalists for the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. Their scripts will now be read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, which may award as many as five of the prestigious $35,000 fellowships.
This year’s finalists are (listed alphabetically by author):
Scott Adams, Menlo Park, CA, “Slingshot”
William Casey, Los Angeles, CA, “Smut”
Frank DeJohn & David Alton Hedges, Santa Ynez, CA, “Legion”
Brian Forrester, Studio City, CA, “Heart of the Monstyr”
Noah Thomas Grossman, Los Angeles, CA, “The Cupid Code”
Patty Jones, Vancouver, BC, Canada, “Joe Banks”
Erin KLG, New York, NY, “Lost Children”
Alan Roth, Suffern, NY, “Jersey City Story”
Stephanie Shannon, Los Angeles, CA, “Queen of Hearts”
Barbara Stepansky, Burbank, CA, “Sugar in My Veins”
The finalists were selected from a record 7,251 scripts submitted for this year’s competition.
The 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships will be presented on Thursday, November 7, at a ceremony in Beverly Hills.
The Nicholl competition is open to any individual who has not earned more than $25,000 writing for film or television or received a fellowship prize that includes a “first look” clause, an option, or any other quid pro quo involving the writer’s work. Entry scripts must be feature length and the original work of a sole author or of exactly two collaborative authors. The scripts must have been written originally in English. Adaptations and translated scripts are not eligible. The earnings limit for 2013 is an increase from the $5,000 limit in previous years.
Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.
The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, chaired by producer Gale Anne Hurd, is composed of writers Naomi Foner, Daniel Petrie Jr., Tom Rickman, Eric Roth, Dana Stevens and Robin Swicord; actor Eva Marie Saint; cinematographer John Bailey; costume designer Vicki Sanchez; producers Peter Samuelson and Robert W. Shapiro; marketing executive Buffy Shutt; and agent Ronald R. Mardigian.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, 128 fellowships have been awarded. Several past Nicholl fellows have recently added to their achievements. Destin Daniel Cretton wrote and directed “Short Term 12” from his Nicholl Fellowship-winning script; the feature has received tremendous critical acclaim this year at screenings at international festivals and in theatrical release. Creighton Rothenberger co-wrote “Olympus Has Fallen,” which opened in theaters this past March. Several fellows currently have projects in post-production: Cecilia Contreras and Amy Garcia wrote “Dear Eleanor”; Anthony Jaswinski wrote “Random”; Karen Moncrieff wrote and directed “The Trials of Cate McCall”; and James Mottern directed “God Only Knows.” Rebecca Sonnenshine is a writer and executive story editor on “The Vampire Diaries” on The CW. Andrew Marlowe is a writer and executive producer, and Terri Edda Miller is a writer and consulting producer, on “Castle” on ABC.
Black Out (UK) Directed by Eva Weber
Fifteen documentary short films have been named as finalists for the 2014 Cinema Eye Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking. Nominees in the Short Film category will be announced along with this year’s feature film nominees in November. Awards will be presented at the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Honors in New York City in January.
This year’s finalists includes a previous Cinema Eye winner and two filmmakers who were named to previous Shorts Lists: Laura Poitras, named to this year’s list for her NY Times Op-Doc Death of a Prisoner, was named Outstanding Feature Director in 2011 for The Oath; Yuri Ancarani, on this year’s list for Da Vinci, was nominated in 2012 for Il Capo; and Sergio Oksman, on the 2014 list for A Story for the Modlins, was a finalist for the 2011 Honors for his film Notes on the Other.
Eva Weber, on this year’s list for both Black Out and Reindeer, becomes the first filmmaker ever to have two films named as finalists in the same year in the history of Cinema Eye. If both films were to be nominated, she’d become the first person ever to score two Cinema Eye nominations in the same category in the same year.
The fifteen finalists are:
Black Out (UK)
Directed by Eva Weber
Bradley Manning Had Secrets (UK)
Directed by Adam Butcher
Coffee Time (Elvakaffe) (Sweden)
Directed by Maria Fredriksson
Da Vinci (Italy)
Directed by Yuri Ancarani
Death of a Prisoner (USA)
Directed by Laura Poitras
I Kill (New Zealand)
Directed by David White and Paul Wedel
Magnetic Reconnection (Canada)
Directed by Kyle Armstrong
Marcel, King of Tervuren (USA)
Directed by Tom Schroeder
Nile Perch (USA)
Directed by Josh Gibson
Outlawed in Pakistan (Pakistan / USA)
Directed by Habiba Nosheen and Hilke Schellmann
Pouters (Scotland)
Directed by Paul Fegan
Reindeer (UK)
Directed by Eva Weber
The Roper (USA)
Directed by Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands
Slomo (USA)
Directed by Josh Izenberg
A Story for the Modlins (Spain)
Directed by Sergio Oksman
Finalists for the Short Filmmaking award were determined in voting by top short film/documentary programmers from international film festivals. Members of this year’s Short Film Nominations Committee included Karen Cirillo (True/False Film Festival), Charlotte Cook (Hot Docs), Hussain Currimbhoy (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Claudette Godfrey (SXSW), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), Ted Mott (Full Frame), Veton Nurkollari (Dokufest Kosovo), Rachel Rosen (San Francisco), Sky Sitney (AFI Silverdocs) and Kim Yutani (Sundance).
