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  • 7 Films Selected to Compete in 28th Venice International Film Critics’ Week

    L’Armée du salut (SALVATION ARMY)  by Abdellah Taïa L’Armée du salut (SALVATION ARMY) by Abdellah Taïa

    Nine films, including seven in competition, have been selected for the 28th Venice International Film Critics’ Week,  August 28 through Sept. 7, 2013. The seven films in competition are eligible for two awards – RaroVideo Audience Award and the USD$100,000 Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film. The week of screenings will open with world premiere of the Italian film L’arte della felicità (THE ART OF HAPPINESS) by Alessandro Rak and close with International Premiere of the Chilean film Las analfabetas (ILLITERATE) by Moisés Sepúlveda.

    The seven films in competition:

    L’Armée du salut (SALVATION ARMY) 
    by Abdellah Taïa
    France-Morocco, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Said Mrini (young Abdellah), Karim Ait M’hand (adult Abdellah), Amine Ennaji (Slimane).

    In Casablanca, the young Abdellah spends his days at home, living a relationship of conflicts and complicity with his father. In the city streets, he has occasional sexual intercourse with men. During a holiday, his older and venerated brother Slimane abandons him. Ten years later Abdellah lives with his Swiss lover, Jean. He leaves Morocco and goes to Geneva,  where he decides to break up and to start a new life alone.  He takes shelter in a house of the Salvation Army, where a Moroccan man sings a song of his idol Abdel Halim Hafez for him.

    Återträffen (THE REUNION)
    by Anna Odell
    Sweden, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Anna Odell.

    Swedish artist Anna Odell invites us to a grim class reunion with a twist. What happens when old hierarchies and truths are questioned from an unexpected voice? This film investigates how far, too far reality is. It traverses the border between fiction and reality with Odell playing the main character, using her own identity and life story to go into unspoken and invisible hierarchical structure. By processing the story in multiple layers, the complexity of power and exclusion is revealed and the dynamics of the group is exposed.

    Las Niñas Quispe (THE QUISPE GIRLS)
    by Sebastián Sepúlveda
    France-Argentina, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Digna Quispe (Justa), Catalina Saavedra (Lucía), Francisca Gavilán (Luciana), Alfredo Castro (Fernando). 

    Based on a true story occurred in 1974, this is the tale of sisters Justa, Lucia, and Luciana Quispe, sheperds in the Chilean altiplano who lead a solitary life. A visitor brings news about a law that might change their way of living. This event forces the women to question their existence and relentlessly brings them to a tragic end. 

    Razredni sovražnik (CLASS ENEMY)
    by Rok Biček
    Slovenia, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Igor Samobor (Robert), Nataša Barbara Gračner (Zdenka), Tjaša Železnik (Saša), Maša Derganc (Nuša), Robert Prebil (Matiaž), Voranc Boh (Luka), Jan Zupančič (Tadej), Daša Cupevski (Sabina).  

    Due to a huge difference in the way they perceive life, the relationship between the students and their new German language teacher becomes critically tense. When one of the students commits suicide, her classmates accuse the teacher of being responsible for her death. The realisation that things are not so black and white comes too late.

    WHITE SHADOW
    by Noaz Deshe
    Germany-Tanzania, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Hamis Bazili (Alias), James Gayo (Kosmos), Glory Madgalena Cyril Mbaywayu (Antoinette), Salum Abdallah (Salum), Tito David Ntanga (Father), Riziki Ally (Mother), James D. Salala (Adin), John Samuel Makipunda (Anulla). 

    Since 2008, albinos in Tanzania have become human targets. Witch doctors offer huge sums of cash for their body parts to be used in magic potions. From 2008 to 2010, more than 200 witch-doctor inspired murders occurred. As a local saying goes: “Albinos do not die, they just disappear.” This is the story of Alias, an albino boy on the run. After his father’s murder, his mother sends him to the city. His uncle Kosmos, a truck driver, takes care of him. Alias learns fast in the city, selling sunglasses, DVDs, and mobile phones. He is attracted to Antoinette, his uncle’s daughter, but her father totally disapproves. However, Alias will soon be noticed for the color of his skin.

    Zoran, il mio nipote scemo (ZORAN, MY NEPHEW THE IDIOT)
    by Matteo Oleotto
    Italy-Slovenia, 2013 – World Premiere

    Cast: Giuseppe Battiston (Paolo), Teco Celio (Gustino), Rok Presnikar (Zoran), Marjuta Slamic (Stefania), Roberto Citran (Alfio), Riccardo Maranzana (Ernesto), Jan Cvitokovic (Jure), Ariella Reggio (Clara). 

    Paolo, 40 years old, lives in a small Friulian town close to the north-eastern border. Unreliable and with a passion for good wine, he spends his days at the local tavern and stubbornly stalks his ex-wife. One day, unexpectedly, he meets his nephew Zoran, an awkward 16-year-old boy grown up in the Slovenian mountains. Reluctantly, Paolo has to take care of him, but he soon discovers Zoran’s bizarre gift: he is phenomenal master of darts. Paolo thinks this is the right chance to take revenge on the world. But will everything be so easy?


    Surprise Film

    Opening Film – Special Event Out of Competition
    L’arte della felicità (THE ART OF HAPPINESS)
    by Alessandro Rak
    Italy, 2013 – World Premiere

    Two brothers. Two continents. Two lives. One single soul. Under a gloomy sky, between apocalyptic premonitions in a Naples at its utmost decay, Sergio, a taxi driver, receives a shocking news. Nothing will be the same as before. Now Sergio looks himself in the mirror and what he sees is a forty-year-old man who has turned his back on music and got lost in the limbo of his city. While a storm is raging outside, a crowd of memories, hopes, regrets and presences begins to populate his cab. Sooner or later the rain will stop and the sky will open up again. And the end will come. Or the music will be back.


    Closing Film – Special Event Out of Competition
    Las analfabetas (ILLITERATE)
    by Moisés Sepúlveda
    Chile, 2013 – International Premiere

    Cast: Paulina García (Ximena), Valentina Muhr (Jackeline).

    50-year-old Ximena has learned to live on her own to keep her illiteracy as a secret. 26-year-old Jackeline, an unemployed teacher, offers to read the news for her. The young woman soon tries to teach her reading, but this new task looks quite complicated. One day, Jackeline finds a letter that Ximena has been keeping as her only treasure: a message her father had left before abandoning her many years before. Due to this mystery, the two women embarks in a learning process in which the role of the teacher and that of the student will continuously reverse.

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  • Paul Schrader, Shekhar Kapur Among 70 Filmmakers to Make Short Films to Celebrate 70th Venice International Film Festival

    Director Paul Schrader at 44th Karlovy Vary International Film FestivalDirector Paul Schrader at 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

    Paul Schrader, Shekhar Kapur, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are amont 70 movie directors from all over the world invited to make a short film lasting between 60 and 90 seconds, for a special project, Venezia 70 – Future Reloaded, in celebration of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (August 28 – September 7, 2013).

    The invitation has been accepted by what the festival describes as “great maestros, well-known directors, and young filmmakers of recognized talent.” All have participated at the Venice Film Festival at least once over the past twenty years. All the shorts will be given a first public screening at the Lido during the 70th Venice International Film Festival.

    Bernardo Bertolucci, Paul Schrader, Shekhar Kapur, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Abbas Kiarostami, Monte Hellman and Walter Salles are just a few of the great filmmakers who have agreed to contribute to Future Reloaded.

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  • INSIDIOUS to Make TV Debut on FEARnet Cable Channel in Fall 2013 | Trailers

    INSIDIOUS

    The ‘original” supernatural chiller INSIDIOUS which had its world premiere in the Midnight Madness program at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival will make its debut on the cable channel FEARnet on Sunday, September 8, and on VOD starting Wednesday, September 11 before the theatrical release of the film’s sequel INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2 on Friday, September 13.

    INSIDIOUS – directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, the famed horror team behind SAW – stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as Josh and Renai Lambert, parents whose son has fallen into a coma, following a mysterious incident in the attic. Things get much worse for the family, as their son’s illness leads to a terrifying encounter with malevolent ghouls, and a journey into the realm of the dead known as “The Further.” The film was released theatrically in the U.S. by FilmDistrict on April 1, 2011, and has grossed $97 million worldwide.  With the picture’s reported $1.5 million budget, it has led to the film being called the most profitable film of 2011. 

    Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Ty Simpkins will reprise their roles in FilmDistrict’s INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2 which James Wan, who directed INSIDIOUS, directed from a script written by Leigh Whannell who also wrote the first film.

    INSIDIOUS 1

    http://youtu.be/E1YbOMDI59k

    INSIDIOUS 2

    http://youtu.be/q8B9hisNcuw

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  • RIP: “Law & Order” Actor Dennis Farina, Dies at 69

    Dennis Farina

    Actor Dennis Farina, a onetime Chicago police officer who played Detective Joe Fontana on the television show “Law & Order,” died on Monday. He was 69.

    After getting his break in 1981, starring in “Thief,” directed by Michael Mann, Farina went on to appear in other films including “Get Shorty,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Midnight Run” and “Out Of Sight.”

    He is survived by three sons, six grandchildren and his longtime partner, Marianne Cahill.

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  • Actress Rita Moreno to be Honored with SAG Life Achievement Award

    Rita Moreno Arriving for the Red Carpet at the West Side Story 50th Annivesary CelebrationRita Moreno Arriving for the Red Carpet at the West Side Story 50th Annivesary Celebration

    Actress Rita Moreno has been named the 50th recipient of SAG-AFTRA‘s highest tribute – the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. The SAG Life Achievement Award will join Moreno’s other industry and public honors, which includes an Oscar, two Emmys, a Tony, a Grammy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of the Arts. Moreno will be presented the performers union’s top accolade at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014 

    At 81, Rita Moreno’s over nearly 70-year diverse career include film appearances in The Night of the Following Day, with Marlon Brando; Marlowe, with James Garner; Popi, in which she played Alan Arkin’s girlfriend; and in Mike Nichol’s production of Carnal Knowledge. She reprised the role of Googie Gomez in the film version of The Ritz, followed by Alan Alda’s The Four Seasons, the award-winning independent film I Like it Like That and the comedy-drama Angus, with George C. Scott and Kathy Bates. She starred opposite Ben Gazzara inBlue Moon and as an Italian widow in the indie feature Carlo’s Wake, with Christopher Meloni. She also appeared in the highly acclaimed movie Pinero, starring Benjamin Bratt, and in John Sayles’ Casa de los Babys. Still one of industry’s busiest stars, Moreno will next be seen in the film version of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

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  • “IT’S ALL SO QUIET” “BORN THIS WAY” “REACHING FOR THE MOON” “BRIDEGROOM” Among 2013 Outfest LA Winners

    IT’S ALL SO QUIET, directed by Nanouk LeopoldIT’S ALL SO QUIET, directed by Nanouk Leopold

    Outfest Los Angeles wrapped its 31st festival and awarded IT’S ALL SO QUIET, directed by Nanouk Leopold the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding International Dramatic Feature Film, and BORN THIS WAY, directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullman won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film. The Audience on the other hand picked REACHING FOR THE MOON, directed by Bruno Barreto with the Audience Award for Outstanding Dramatic Feature Film and BRIDEGROOM, directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason won the Audience Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film.

    Nanouk Leopold’s IT’S ALL SO QUIET takes place on an isolated Dutch farm overseen by a lonely man named Helmer. Forced to look after the land and to tend to his ailing father, Helmer has long accepted pain and solitude as inevitable aspects of life. But his weary soul gets a lift when a farmhand arrives one afternoon looking for work. The young man awakens feelings in Helmer that prompt him, for the first time in years, to reconsider his self-inflicted isolation.

    BORN THIS WAY, directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb TullmanBORN THIS WAY, directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullman

    The documentary BORN THIS WAY had its premiere at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. Shot in Cameroon, where homosexuality is punishable with a five-year prison sentence, the film observes Gertrude, a young lesbian, as she hesitantly comes out to the nun who raised her in a convent. Meanwhile, Cedric, a young gay man, is determined to stay in his home even as his neighbors escalate their violent threats. From their base in an HIV treatment center, these two brave souls risk life and liberty to create positive momentum for LGBT rights, even as they face overwhelming personal struggles.

    REACHING FOR THE MOON, winner of Best Feature Film at 2013 Frameline, is described as a steamy tale of an unlikely romance between two extraordinary lesbian artists, set against the backdrop of political upheaval and a clash of cultures. Grappling with writer’s block, legendary American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) travels to 1950s Rio de Janeiro to visit her college friend, Mary (Tracy Middendorf). Hoping to find inspiration on Mary’s sprawling estate, Elizabeth winds up with much more — a tempestuous relationship with Mary’s bohemian partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Glória Pires), that rocks the staid writer to her foundation. Alcoholism, geographical distance and a military coup come between the lovers, but their intimate connection would span decades and forever impact the life and work of these two extraordinary artists. The attraction of two polar-opposite women has rarely been so volatile and so erotically charged on the big screen.

    In BRIDEGROOM, which won the Heineken Audience Award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, director Linda Bloodworth Thomason (“Designing Women”) navigates the romantic highs of Tom and Shane’s relationship – until tragedy strikes. Immediately after, Tom’s conservative parents block Shane off from all contact, refusing to let Shane attend Tom’s funeral. But instead of conceding, Shane vows to tell his and Tom’s love story to the world. First on Youtube, his video “It Could Happen to You” attracted 3.4 million views. Now, as a remarkable, heart-felt feature about love, loss and the courage to stand up for same-sex equality, Shane’s story has taken the nation by storm.

    The complete list of awards for 2013 Outfest

    Special Programming Awards

    Special Programming Award for Freedom
    DEEPSOUTH, Directed by Lisa Biagiotti

    Special Programming Award for Artistic Achievement
    ANIMALS, Directed by Marçal Forés

    Special Programming Award for Emerging Talent
    Diego Ruiz, Writer/Director/Actor, IGLOO

    Audience Awards

    Audience Award for Outstanding Documentary Short Film
    FACING FEAR, Directed by Jason Cohen

    Audience Award for Outstanding Dramatic Short Film
    WINI + GEORGE, Directed by Benjamin Monie

    Audience Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film
    BRIDEGROOM, Directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

    Audience Award for Outstanding Dramatic Feature Film
    REACHING FOR THE MOON, Directed by Bruno Barreto

    Audience Award for Outstanding First U.S. Dramatic Feature Film
    GEOGRAPHY CLUB, Directed by Gary Entin

    Jury Awards

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Experimental Short Film
    SHE GONE ROGUE, Directed by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Short Film
    PERFORMING GIRL, Directed by Crescent Diamond

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Short Film
    GOING SOUTH, Directed Leesong Hee-il

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film
    BORN THIS WAY, Directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullman

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding International Dramatic Feature Film
    IT’S ALL SO QUIET, Directed by Nanouk Leopold

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film
    Guinevere Turner, WHO’S AFRAID OF VAGINA WOLF?

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film
    Bill Heck and Marcus DeAnda, PIT STOP (tie)

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Screenwriting
    Chris Mason Johnson, TEST

    Grand Jury Award for Outstanding U.S. Dramatic Feature Film
    TEST, Directed by Chris Mason Johnson

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  • Actress Jessica Chastain Honored at 2013 Giffoni Film Festival

    Jessica Chastain Honored at 2013 Giffoni Film Festival with 'Giffoni Experience Award'

    Actress Jessica Chastain was honored at the 2013 Giffoni Film Festival with ‘Giffoni Experience Award’ dedicated to international guest stars. The Giffoni Film Festival located in Giffoni Valle Piana in Campania, Southern Italy, is considered the largest children’s film festival in Europe.

    Jessica Chastain was nominated for an Academy® Award for her performance in the 2011 critically-acclaimed drama The Help and stars opposite Golden Globe®-nominee James McAvoy in Myriad Pictures’ double-feature film project, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY: HIM and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY: HER. Ned Benson (In Defiance of Gravity) wrote the two scripts and will direct both films.

    The love story explores how a married couple in New York City deals with an emotional, life-altering experience, from the two different perspectives of the husband, Conor, (McAvoy), a restaurant owner, and of the wife, Eleanor, (Chastain), who goes back to college. Cassandra Kulukundis (A Late Quartet, In Defiance of Gravity) is producing. Kulukundis is also casting director (There Will Be Blood, Shattered Glass)

    The film will be released on September 13, 2013.

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  • UK’s Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival Returns for 2013 with a ‘Swiss Focus’

    2013 Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival in Bristol, UK

    Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, the longest running competitive short film and animation festival in the UK returns to Bristol from September 17-22, 2013. This year the festival has announced a Swiss Focus in partnership with Swiss Films and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, highlighting today’s hottest Swiss film and animation exports. The showcase includes ‘God You’re So Square’, curated by Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, which breaks down the conventional image of the Swiss psyche (efficient, boring, predictable) by exploring dysfunctional males who are struggling to find their place in society and the film THE LIVING ALSO CRY by Basil da Cunha, who recently presented his first feature at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

    The gala event of the Focus invites Franz Treichler, founder of legendary Swiss band The Young Gods, to perform a specially designed soundtrack for an overview of experimental films of the 20th century. Based on the instigators of the Dada Movement (Hans Richter, Man Ray), its self-proclaimed heirs of the 1960s and more recent experimental films, this will be the UK premiere performance of ‘Franz Treichler Plays Dada’. Treichler, who is also confirmed for the Brief Encounters International Jury, draws on rich experimentation from the music he has created over 20 years for cinema.

    Franz Treichler explains; “This soundtrack takes us from Man Ray to Fluxus, to Jean Painlevé, Stan Brackage and Martin Arnold. A soundtrack for a selection of pioneers of the genre movies, focused on originality since a large part of creation is left to improvisation.”

    Also at the Arnolfini, Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer will be creating an installation of his short film trilogy. Meanwhile, the Encounters Filmmaker Focus will be on Marie-Elsa Sgualdo, whose short fiction film You Can’t Do Everything At Once, But You Can Leave Everything At Once, inspired by the work of Spanish filmmaker José-Luis Guerin, also screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

    A free-entry Pop-Up Cine Chalet will be open for the whole week in The Parlour Showrooms. Far from a nostalgic trip through idyllic mountain pastures, it will screen works such as the feature documentary Image Problem, which pokes fun at perceptions of the Swiss national identity, and The Lonely Pioneers, which traces The Young Gods’ history from the beginnings in 1985 up until today.

    Encounters Managing Director Liz Harkman says; “We’re delighted to be working with our international partners for this programme, which will delve into the current artistic and cultural output of Switzerland in order to show the many contemporary faces of this nation”.

    Marcel Müller, Project Leader for Swiss Films says; “It is a great privilege for us to be guest of honour at the festival this year. Preparing the Swiss attendance in collaboration with the Encounters team has been very exciting. And it will be even more exciting to see the results live, introducing the audience to the variety of creation in Swiss shorts, ranging from fictional works to sound and visual installation, from animation to filmic essays.”

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  • “Dungeons & Dragons” Culture-Inspired Indie-Dramedy “ZERO CHARISMA” Gets an October 2013 Release Date

    Zero CharismaSam Eidson as Scott in ZERO CHARISMA directed by Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews. Photo credit courtesy of Zero Charisma 

    From the San Diego Comic-con comes the announcement that Nerdist Industries in partnership with Tribeca Film will co release Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews’s directorial debut “ZERO CHARISMA”. The “Dungeons & Dragons” culture-inspired indie-dramedy, which world premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival – taking home the audience award in the Narrative Spotlight category, stars Sam Eidson (Natural Selection, My Sucky Teen Romance), Garrett Graham, and Brock England. The film was written by Matthews and produced by Shark Films and Magic Stone.

    Tribeca Film and Nerdist Industries will co-release the film this fall beginning October 8, 2013 on cable/telco and satellite video-on-demand platforms, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Playstation, and Google Play, followed by a theatrical release on October 11, 2013.

    As the strict Game Master of a fantasy role-playing game, Scott (Sam Eidson) leads his friends in a weekly quest through mysterious lands from the safety of his grandmother’s kitchen. But his mastery of his own domain starts to slip — along with everything else in his life — when neo-nerd hipster Miles (Garrett Graham) joins the game, winning over the group with his confident charm and dethroning Scott with an unexpected coup. Caught in delusions of grandeur, Scott must roll the dice and risk everything to expose Miles as the fraud he believes him to be. A darkly comedic fable of epic proportions,Zero Charisma is an ode to nerds from every realm.

    http://youtu.be/vRRCt0tbQvw

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  • Filmmaker Magazine Announces its 2013 “25 New Faces of Independent film”

    Filmmaker Magazine Names 2013's '25 New Faces of Independent Film'

    Filmmaker Magazine released the 16th edition of its annual “25 New Faces of Independent film” – its bet on the individuals who will be shaping the independent film world of the future. The Summer 2013 issue features on its cover Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler, who himself was selected for the “25 New Faces” series just one year ago.

    “The 2013 ’25 New Faces’ series finds young filmmakers fascinated by an incredible diversity of global stories,” said Filmmaker Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay. “The U.S.-Mexico border, Iceland, villages in Senegal and Malawi, a Lakota Native American reservation, economically-battered Cyprus and the frontier American West are just a few of the places these young filmmakers have ventured in search for new tales and characters.”

    Breakthroughs appearing on the list over the past 16 years include: Ryan Coogler, (Fruitvale Station) Lena Dunham (Girls, Tiny Furniture), Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines), Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow), Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson), Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know), Joshua Safdie (Daddy Longlegs) and Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas). Notable actors include several high profilers in the early days of their careers such as Ryan Gosling (The Believer), Ellen Page (Hard Candy), Peter Sarsgaard (Another Day in Paradise) and Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry).

    Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film of 2013 are:

    Scott Blake’s 25-minute, masterful and mysterious short Surveyor, a 19th-century-set existentialist Western, has flown beneath the industry radar, playing the Tacoma Film Festival and then appearing online at Vimeo. He’s currently at work on a thriller set in the world of private security firms.

    Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. Acclaimed photographer and first-time filmmaker Lyric R. Cabral and director and cinematographer David Felix Sutcliffe are currently in production on their documentary (T)ERROR, a riveting chronicle of an FBI counterterrorism sting operation.

    Emily Carmichael. Among the many short works of animator and filmmaker Emily Carmichael are the web series The Adventures of Ledo and Ix and her recent, acclaimed short RPG OKC, a lo-fi love affair captured as a sidescrolling arcade game.

    Josephine Decker. Director, actress and performance artist Josephine Decker has had a varied career that includes startling Marina Abramovic at MoMA and premiering the unclassifiable short feature Butter on the Latch — about two women whose friendship dissolves at a Balkan folk music camp — at the 2013 Maryland Film Festival.

    Anahita Ghazvinizadeh. A recent graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Tehran-born Anahita Ghazvinizadeh won the Cinefondation Best Student Short Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival with Needle, a coolly observational look at an American pre-teen girl’s ear-piercing.

    Mohammed Gorejestani. Bay Area-based, Tehran-born Mohammed Gorejestani directed for ITVS Refuge, a chillingly imagined tale of an Iranian cyber-attack on the U.S. — and the U.S. government’s response. He’s also a branded content director and software developer with a 1991-set feature about New Economy have-nots, Somehow These Days Will Be Missed, in the works.

    Daniel Hart. Dallas-based composer Daniel Hart has created one of the best scores you’ll hear all year for fellow Texas resident David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. And in addition to his solo work, Hart has played with bands like The Polyphonic Spree and Broken Social Scene and has scored several other films due for premiere next year.

    Eliza Hittman. New York-based Eliza Hittman was one of Sundance 2013’s most exciting discoveries. Her first feature, It Felt Like Love, is a bold, honest and formally rigorous tale of teenage sexuality set in the seaside neighborhoods of south Brooklyn.

    Boyd Holbrook. Currently filming a lead role in former “25 New Face” Sara Colangelo’s debut feature, Little Accidents, Boyd Holbrook appeared on screen this year in the Sundance picture Very Good Girls and Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, co-stars in the next Terrence Malick film, is directing a short based on a Sam Shepard story and is at work developing The Vacancy of Your Heart, his directorial debut.

    Lou Howe. AFI grad Lou Howe was nominated for a Student Academy Award for his short film My First Claire, and he is in post on his feature debut, Gabriel, a Rory Culkin-starring drama that is currently part of the IFP Narrative Lab.

    Andrew Thomas Huang. Following three visually astonishing experimental shorts, including the Slamdance-winning Solipsist, L.A.-based Andrew Thomas Huang is creating magical, effects-heavy musical videos, such as the recent “Mutual Core” for Bjork and Sigur Ros’ “Brennisteinn.”

    Elaine McMillion. Boston-based doc filmmaker Elaine McMillion found an exciting new form for her work with Hollow, an interactive participatory documentary about life in a West Virginia town that just launched online at hollowdocumentary.com.

    Jason Osder. Jason Osder’s searing look at the Philadelphia Police Department’s 1985 attack on the black separatist group MOVE, Let the Fire Burn, was a documentary discovery at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The D.C.-based George Washington University professor is currently at work on his follow-up, another true tale of political killing set in 1985.

    Andrew Droz Palermo. Columbia, Mo.-based cinematographer and now director Andrew Droz Palermo has a number of releases set for the next year, including, as d.p., Adam Wingard’s horror picture, You’re Next, for Lionsgate, and Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher. He’s also directing with Tracy Droz Tragos Rich Hill, a documentary portrait of three boys in the Missouri town.

    Iva Radivojevic. After having shot and directed numerous short, travel-based essay films for her website Iva Asks, New York-based director, cinematographer and editor Iva Radivojevic is in post on her debut feature, Evaporating Borders. Executive produced by Laura Poitras, it’s a visual essay about political refugees and asylum seekers in Cyprus, shot in the wake of its banking sector collapse.

    Nandan Rao. Oregon-based Nandan Rao first garnered attention as an innovative cinematographer for directors like Sophia Takal (Green) and Zach Weintraub (Bummer Summer), but in the last year he’s

    directed his own debut, The Men of Dodge City, and, with Weintraub, launched the online site Simple Machine, a distributor start-up he describes as “the Airbnb of cinema.”

    Rodrigo Reyes. With his experimental feature Memories of the Future and his recent documentary about the U.S.-Mexico border, Purgatorio, the latter of which recently premiered at the Guadalajara and Los Angeles Film Festivals, L.A.-based Rodrigo Reyes is creating a new visual language that unites the personal with the political.

    Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol. Seattle-based filmmakers Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol are partners in the advertising agency Lucid, Inc. while making a series of evocative short documentaries. Their latest, the Webby Award-winning The Roper, played Sundance, True/False and SXSW in 2013, and a feature, Uncertain, is in post.

    Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The hilariously messy lives of New Yorkers are engagingly captured in High Maintenance, a Web series about a marijuana delivery service by actor and editor Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, an Emmy-nominated casting director for 30 Rock.

    Leah Shore. With the SXSW-premiering short film Old Man, Leah Shore combined her own frenetic animation style with audio interviews of Charles Manson to create a dazzling, psychotropic romp through the latter half of the 20th century.

    Andrea Sisson and Pete Ohs. Ohio-born, L.A.-based filmmakers Andrea Sisson and Pete Ohs turned their fascination with Iceland into a beautiful and philosophical experimental documentary, I Send You This Place, which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival.

    Jeremy Teicher. New York filmmaker Jeremy Teicher traveled to rural Senegal to make his first feature, Tall as the Baobab Tree. Shooting it himself and working with next to no budget and actors speaking in a rural dialect that had never been used in a narrative film, it is a smart, rhythmic and moving tale of two sisters trying to self-actualize in their small village. The film has played the London, Rotterdam, San Francisco and New York Human Rights Watch Film Festivals.

    Michael Tyburski and Ben Nabors. The production team of Michael Tyburski and Ben Nabors won the 2013 SXSW Grand Jury Documentary prize with William and the Windmill, which Nabors directed and Tyburski shot. The film follows William Kamkwamba as he travels the international circuit following his building of a windmill for his Malawi village. The two also co-wrote Tyburski’s prize-winning Sundance short, Palimpsest, an eerie, quasi-romantic narrative about an urban sonic feng shui specialist.

    Lauren Wolkstein. With her short film Social Butterfly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, New York-based Lauren Wolkstein turned the tale of a female American grifter’s infiltration into a French teenage house party into a surprisingly moving lesbian coming-of-age story. It’s just one of several striking shorts by Wolkstein, including The Strange Ones, which she co-directed with Christopher Radcliffe.

    Chloé Zhao. Beijing-born, New York-based writer/director Chloé Zhao has been traveling back and forth to the Lakota Pine Ridge reservation in North Dakota in preparation for her debut feature, Lee, about an insurgent teen working his way towards adulthood in an environment in which teen suicide is rampant. The winner of the NYU Christopher Columbus/Richard Vague Film Production Grant, the project has also been supported by IFP, Sundance, and Film Independent.

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  • Award Winning Indie Film “SPARROWS DANCE” Gets A Summer Release Date

    SPARROWS DANCE directed by Noah Buschel

    SPARROWS DANCE, winner of Best Narrative Feature at the 2012 Austin Film Festival will be available nationwide on demand August 20, 2013 and select theatrical release in NY on August 23, 2013. Directed by Noah Buschel and starring Paul Sparks and Marin Ireland, the film is described as “a tender movie about love and fear,” the film tells the story of “An agoraphobic actress who hasn’t stepped outside in over a year finds her comfortable routine broken when her toilet overflows. “

    When stage fright gets the best of her, a former actress (Marin Ireland, “Homeland”) stops leaving her apartment, crippled by fear of the outside world. Living off delivery food and residuals from her acting career, she spends her days watching bad TV and spying on the city from her window. But when her toilet overflows and a kind, compassionate plumber (Paul Sparks, “Boardwalk Empire”) shows up, she reluctantly allows him into her refuge. A tender, comical love story, grounded by exceptional performances by Ireland and Sparks.

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  • Horror-Thriller JUG FACE Sets August 9th Release Date

    JUG FACE, the horror-thriller written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle, will have a national theatrical roll out on August 9th via Modern Distributors. The film will have a pre-theatrical VOD roll out in the U.S. on July 8th, and is slated for a VOD release, day and date with theatrical, on August 9th.

    JUG FACE, stars Lauren Ashley Carter (“The Woman”), Sean Bridgers (“Deadwood”), Sean Young (“Blade Runner”), Larry Fessenden (“I Sell the Dead”) and Daniel Manche (“The Girl Next Door”) and tells the story of a pregnant teen trying to escape a backwoods community when she discovers that she may be sacrificed to a mysterious pit. The entity in the pit requires a life for keeping the community safe. The face of the person to be sacrificed is crafted onto a ceramic jug. When ignored, the entity unleashes an evil onto the community. Now no one is safe as tragedy befalls each member one by one and they soon realize that the pit wants what it wants.

    JUG FACE won the Slamdance Grand Prize Screenwriting Award in 2011 and debuted as a Special Screening selection at this year’s festival.”

    http://youtu.be/ffaBYM3P3SQ

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