• Jury Announced for 2012 Sundance Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_1949" align="alignnone"]Parker Posey in Price Check[/caption]

    The Sundance Film Festival announced today the 22 members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2012 festival, as well as the host of the Awards Ceremony on January 28. The Festival takes place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

    Actress and writer Parker Posey will serve as the host of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony, set to take place January 28 at 7:00 p.m. Posey has appeared in more than a dozen films at the Sundance Film Festival, including Party Girl (1995), House of Yes (1997) and Broken English (2007). Posey also appears in Price Check in the out-of-competition Premieres section at this year’s Festival.

    Awards for short films will also be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24.

    U.S. DOCUMENTARY JURY 

    Fenton Bailey

    Fenton Bailey made his Sundance Film Festival debut in 1998 with the documentary Party Monster. He later co-wrote and co-directed a narrative version of Party Monster, which debuted at Sundance in 2003. Fenton has gone on to produce and/or direct seven films launched at the festival, including Inside Deep Throat and, most recently, the Emmy®-nominated documentary Becoming Chaz. In 2010 he produced the Emmy®-winning documentary The Last Beekeeper, and in 2011 he produced and directed the Emmy®- nominated Wishful Drinking.

    Shari Berman

    Shari Springer Berman is an Oscar- and Emmy®-nominated filmmaker. With partner Robert Pulcini, she wrote and directed American Splendor (Grand Jury Prize, 2003 Sundance Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award, Cannes Film Festival; Best Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild Awards and Best Adapted Screenplay Nomination, Academy Awards®). Cinema Verite, Berman and Pulcini’s most recent film,

    received nine Emmy® nominations including Best Movie, Outstanding Directing and a win for Best Editing. Their first film, Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s, won Best Documentary Feature at the 1997 Hamptons International Film Festival.

    Heather Croall

    Heather Croall is the Director for Sheffield Doc/Fest, the premiere documentary event in the UK and regarded as one of the best documentary events in the world. Heather was previously the director of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), where she developed the innovative matchmaking pitching initiative MeetMarket.

    Charles Ferguson

    Charles Ferguson directed and produced Inside Job, which won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature in 2011. His first documentary, No End In Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize. The film went on to be nominated for the Oscar in 2008. Charles is the author of four books, including High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars and Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World (co-authored with Charles Morris). He is currently working on a book about the global financial crisis, to be released by Random House in Spring 2012. Charles is the founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc.

    Kim Roberts

    Kim Roberts is an editor of feature documentaries. Her recent work includes Waiting for Superman, Food, Inc., Autism the Musical, and the upcoming Last Call at the Oasis. Kim won an Emmy® for Autism the Musical, her third nomination. She has received two Eddie Award nominations from the American Cinema Editors, and a WGA nomination. Her other films include: Oscar Nominees and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners Daughter from Danang and Long Night’s Journey into Day, Two Days in October, The Fall of Fujimori, Lost Boys of Sudan, Daddy & Papa, A Hard Straight and Splinters.

    U.S. DRAMATIC JURY

    Justin Lin

    Justin Lin’s solo directorial debut, the critically acclaimed Better Luck Tomorrow, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. In April 2003, the film went on to make box office history as the highest-grossing (per-screen average) opening weekend film for MTV Films/Paramount Pictures. In 2009, he directed Universal’s Fast & Furious, which reunited the original cast of the franchise and sparked new life for series. Justin then directed the critically-acclaimed fifth installment of the franchise, Fast Five, which has become one of Universal’s most financially successful movies of all time.

    Anthony Mackie

    Anthony Mackie is a classically trained actor who studied at the Julliard School of Drama. His work spans the stage and screen. He was discovered after receiving rave reviews while playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway Up Against the Wind. He earned IFP Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for his performance in Rodney Evan’s Brother to Brother, which won the Special Dramatic Jury Price at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, as well as best feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. He also played Sgt. JT Sanborn in Kathryn’s Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, a film that not only earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, but also earned Academy Awards® for the Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing and Best Writing.

    Cliff Martinez

    Cliff Martinez began as a drummer for several bands during the punk era including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dickies. He later scored Steven Soderbergh’s first theatrical release, 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape, leading to a longstanding relationship which includes Kafka, The Limey, Traffic, Solaris and Contagion. His credits also include Narc, The Lincoln Lawyer and Nicolas Refn’s Drive.

    Lynn Shelton

    Lynn Shelton was a stage actor until attending graduate school in photography at the School of Visual Arts, at which point she became an editor and experimental filmmaker. Her first narrative feature as a writer/director, We Go Way Back, won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2006. Her second, My Effortless Beauty, premiered at SXSW and earned her the Acura Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Humpday, her third feature, was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as well as the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Your Sister’s Sister premiered at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival and is playing in the out-of-competition Spotlight section at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

    Amy Vincent

    Amy Vincent is an award-winning cinematographer. She has worked with Kasi Lemmons on Eve’s Bayou, Dr. Hugo, Caveman’s Valentine and with Craig Brewer on Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, and the recently released Footloose. In addition, Amy’s work has garnered prestigious awards, including the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award for Hustle & Flow and the 2001 Women in Film Kodak Vision Award.

    WORLD DOCUMENTARY JURY

    Nick Fraser

    Nick Fraser has served as the Editor of Storyville since it started in 1997. After graduating from Oxford he worked as a reporter, television producer and editor. His publications include a biography of Eva Peron, The Voice of Modern Hatred, and The Importance of Being Eton. Storyville films have won more than 200 awards, including four Oscars, a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and several Griersons, Emmys® and Peabodys.

    Clara Kim

    Clara Kim is Senior Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center. She was formerly Gallery Director & Curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles where she organized residencies, commissions, exhibitions and publications with international contemporary artists. She was co-curator of the international biennial Media City Seoul 2010 and organized a global forum on independent spaces called State of Independence in 2011. She has sat on juries for Creative Capital Foundation, Artadia Artist Fellowship, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Louis Comfort Tiffany Award; is on the advisory board of East of Borneo; and is the recipient of fellowships from the Warhol Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council.

    Jean-Marie Teno

    Jean-Marie Teno has been producing and directing films on the colonial and post-colonial history of Africa for over 25 years. His films are noted for their personal and original approach to issues of race, cultural identity, African history and contemporary politics. Teno’s films have been honored at festivals worldwide: Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Yamagata, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Liepzig, San Francisco, and London. Teno has been a guest of the Flaherty Seminar, an artist in residence at the Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College, and has lectured at numerous universities. He was a Visiting professor at Hampshire College in 2009.

    WORLD DRAMATIC JURY

    Julia Ormond

    British actress Julia Ormond received the London Drama Critics’ Award for Best Newcomer in Christopher Hampton’s Faith, Hope and Charity. She starred in the epic Legends of the Fall, played the lead role with Harrison Ford in the film Sabrina, and starred in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In 2010 she won a supporting actress Emmy® Award for her role in the HBO Movie Temple Grandin. She is the Founder and President of the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET), which works with corporations, NGOs, government officials, and individuals to create the systemic change needed to eradicate slavery at source. Julia is a former United Nations Goodwill Ambassador against Trafficking and Slavery, and the founding co-chair of Film Aid International. She can currently be seen in the Weinstein Company’s My Week with Marilyn in which she plays actress Vivien Leigh.

    Richard Pena

    Richard Peña has been the Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Director of the New York Film Festival since 1988. At the Film Society, Peña has organized retrospectives of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sacha Guitry, Abbas Kiarostami, Robert Aldrich, Roberto Gavaldon, Ritwik Ghatak, Kira Muratova, Youssef Chahine, Yasujiro Ozu, Carlos Saura and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as major film series devoted to African, Swedish, Israeli, Cuban, Polish, Hungarian, Arab, Korean, Taiwanese and Argentine cinema. He is a Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in film theory and international cinema, and from 2006-2009 was a Visiting Professor in Spanish at Princeton University. He is also currently the co-host of WNET/Channel 13’s weekly Reel 13.

    Alexei Popogrebsky

    Alexei Popogrebsky was born in 1972 in Moscow into a family of a screenwriter. He wrote and directed the award-winning films Roads to Koktebel (2003) (with Boris Khlebnikov), Simple Things (2007), and How I Ended This Summer (2010), set and shot on a polar station in the Russian Arctic and based entirely around two characters. The film won two Silver Bears in Berlin, Gold Hugo in Chicago and Best Film at BFI London Film Festival. Alexei is currently developing his first English-language project, a 3D fantasy drama.

    ALFRED P. SLOAN JURY

    Scott Burns

    Scott Burns recently wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros. film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The film, starring Bradley Cooper and currently in development, is set to begin production in early 2012 and marks Burns’ fourth collaboration with Steven Soderbergh, who will direct. He also wrote Contagion and co- wrote the Academy Award®-winning Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. As a producer, he received the Humanitas Prize and the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America for his Academy Award®-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He wrote and directed HBO Films’ critically acclaimed PU-239, which was produced by Soderbergh and George Clooney. Scott also wrote The Library, a stage play based on the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School with Kennedy/Marshall producing. He began his career in advertising and was part of the creative team responsible for the original “Got Milk?” campaign.

    Tracy Day

    Tracy Day co-founded the World Science Festival in 2008 with world-renowned physicist and best-selling author Brian Greene. She serves as CEO and oversees the creative and programmatic offerings of the World Science Festival. She is a four-time National News Emmy® award-winning journalist and has produced live and documentary programming for the nation’s preeminent television news divisions for over two decades. At ABC News she was producer for This Week with David Brinkley, editorial and field producer for Nightline and story editor for the news magazine, Day One. Tracy has produced documentaries, specials and live town meeting broadcasts for PBS, The Discovery Channel, CNN, Lifetime and CNBC. In addition to Emmy® Awards, she won a Hugo Award, a 2004 Clarion Award and the CINE Golden Eagle for investigative journalism. She has been an adjunct professor in the Leadership and the Arts program at the Sanford Institute for Public Policy.

    Helen Fisher

    Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological Anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems (fMRI) and cross-cultural patterns of romantic love, mate choice, marriage, adultery, divorce, gender differences in the brain, personality, temperament, and business personalities. She has written five internationally best selling books, including WHY HIM? WHY HER?; WHY WE LOVE; and ANATOMY OF LOVE. She lectures worldwide. Among her speeches are those at the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, United Nations, Smithsonian, Salk Institute, Harvard Medical School and Aspen Institute.

    She publishes widely in academic and lay journals. For her work in the media, Helen received the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

    SHORT FILM JURY

    Mike Judge

    Mike Judge is the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head for MTV and King of the Hill for FOX TV. He expanded into writing and directing his own live-action films, Office Space, Idiocracy and Extract. He’s done voices for South Park and acted in Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids movies. Mike recently resurrected Beavis and Butt-Head with 12 new shows for MTV.

    Dee Rees

    Dee Rees is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a Sundance Institute Directing Lab Fellow. She’s written and directed several short films including the award-winning Pariah, which screened at over 40 festivals worldwide. Her feature documentary, Eventual Salvation, premiered on the Sundance Channel in 2009, and her debut narrative feature, Pariah, opened the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Dee received a Renew Media Arts Fellowship for her work, and recently completed an endowed residency at Yaddo. Currently, Dee is writing an original screenplay for Focus Features and is also in development on a new television series with HBO. Dee interned on Spike Lee’s films When The Levees Broke and Inside Man.

    Shane Smith

    Shane Smith has been a programmer, jury member and speaker at film festivals all over the world. He is currently the Director of Public Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox. He previously served as the Executive Producer, In-flight Entertainment at Spafax Canada Inc., where he oversaw all in-flight programming for Air Canada. He also was the Director of Programming for the digital TV channels Movieola: The Short Film Channel and Silver Screen Classics. He was a Short Film Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival from 2006-2010 and for six years was the Director of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. He is a former Programmer for the Inside Out Festival, a member of the Organizing Committee of the International Short Film Conference and was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Aboriginal Media, presenters of the imagineNATIVE Film Festival.

     

     

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  • Five DJ’s Turn The Tables on Music in New Documentary ReGeneration Music Project Set For Feb 16 Release

     

    Re:Generation Music Project, a new documentary directed by award-winning documentarian, Amir Bar-Lev (The Tillman Story, My Kid Could Paint That), follows five electronic DJs/producers as they re-imagine music collaborating with influential artists from each genre. In the film, The Crystal Method, DJ Premier, Pretty Lights, Mark Ronson, and Skrillex use technology to mix musical styles and generations for the creation of five original tracks. Re:Generation Music Project will enjoy a unique nationwide, one-night only theatrical release in select cities and venues on Feb. 16, 2012.  Encore screenings to be scheduled for Feb 23rd.

    In the film, current GRAMMY®-nominated artist Skrillex heads into a Los Angeles studio with members of the iconic rock band, The Doors, to collaborate on a new song, “Breakn’ A Sweat.” Meanwhile, The Crystal Method touched down in Detroit to work with Martha Reeves of The Vandellas and The Funk Brothers on the R&B number, “I’m Not Leaving.” Mark Ronson created a southern brew of New Orleans jazz in “A La Modeliste” that boasts a veritable all-star cast of Erykah Badu, Trombone Shorty, Mos Def, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Members of The Dap Kings. DJ Premier tapped NAS and Boston’s very own Berklee Symphony Orchestra for his “Regeneration,” and the documentary culminates in Nashville on the dusty intergalactic twang of Pretty Lights’ “Wayfaring Stranger” featuring vocals from LeAnn Rimes and Dr. Ralph Stanley.

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  • Indie filmmaker Jonathan Parisen Charged in NY Train Incident

    [caption id="attachment_2182" align="alignnone"]Jonathan M. Parisen[/caption]

    Indie filmmaker Jonathan M. Parisen, 40, of East Orange, NJ, who wrote, produced and directed “Stairwell: Trapped in the World Trade Center” was charged Monday with trespassing and endangerment in New York City.

    According to published reports, an intoxicated Parisen jumped onto the Staten Island Railway tracks early Sunday to retrieve a lost shoe. When he struggled to get back up, good Samaritan Steven Santiago jumped on the tracks to help and was struck in the head by a train.

    Parisen and Santiago are both being treated at Staten Island University Medical Center.

     

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  • Lineup for Perspektive Deutsches Kino section at 2012 Berlinale is Complete

    [caption id="attachment_2180" align="alignnone"]This Ain’t California by Marten Persiel[/caption]

    With 13 films, including three full-length documentaries and four full-length fictional films as well two sets of three medium-long films each, the programme of the 2012 Perspektive Deutsches Kino is complete . Section director Linda Söffker sums up the selection: “The GDR was colourful, adolescents are critical and good films end in our minds.”

    West Berliner Michael Schöbel and East Berliner Ronald Vietz launched Wildfremd Productions in 2011 so as to make a film such as had never been seen on the screen before about teenagers in the GDR in the 1980s. Under the direction of Marten Persiel, they revived the weird and strange world of “Rollbrettffahrer”, as skateboarders were called in the GDR, using a veritable treasure trove of footage from super-8 films they had dug up from the period. This Ain’t California is Persiel’s first full-length documentary.

    Unlike the skateboarders in the GDR, today’s young slam poets rebel with rhymes and verses, political and socio-critical visions or just plain nonsense. Marion Hütter’s documentary Dichter und Kämpfer accompanies four word-acrobats from Berlin, Leipzig, Bochum and Stuttgart with a camera for a year and shows how they enjoy giving their audiences food for thought.

    Jan Speckenbach’s dffb graduation film, DIE VERMISSTEN with André M. Hennicke in the lead, envisions parents’ fears when their children are missing. Have they disappeared against their will because something happened to them? Or have they disappeared because they wanted to rebel against their parents and find a life different from theirs? Jan Speckenbach, whose short film Gestern in Eden screened in the Cinefondation in Cannes in 2008, plays with a threatening scenario in his debut film.

    In their self-financed production Karaman, Tamer Yigit and Branka Prlic also tell a story that ends differently in each viewer’s mind. Zehra (Isilay Gül) wants to immigrate to Germany. But as a Muslim woman, can she leave an Islamic country for the West? The family are against it. Karaman is the second full-length feature by directing duo Yigit and Prlic.

    Four medium-long films round off the programme:
    The 43-minute fictional film Trattoria (directed by Soleen Yusef), produced at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg; the 26-minute fictional film Ararat by Engin Kundag made at the ifs köln; the 32-minute fictional work about the pleasure of idleness, Sometimes we sit and think and sometimes we just sit (directed by Julian Pörksen), produced by Credofilm (Berlin); and Alice Gruia’s self-produced 53-minute documentary, Rodicas, about two friends of the same name.


    An overview of all the films in Perspektive Deutsches Kino:

    Ararat by Engin Kundag

    Dichter und Kämpfer (Rhymers and Rivals) by Marion Hütter (documentary)

    DIE VERMISSTEN (REPORTED MISSING) by Jan Speckenbach

    Gegen Morgen (Before Tomorrow) by Joachim Schoenfeld

    Karaman by Tamer Yigit and Branka Prlic

    Man for a Day by Katarina Peters (documentary)

    Rodicas by Alice Gruia (documentary)

    Sometimes we sit and think, and sometimes we just sit by Julian Pörksen

    Sterben nicht vorgesehen (Dying Not Planned For) by Matthias Stoll (documentary)

    Tage in der Stadt (Out Off) by Janis Mazuch

    This Ain’t California by Marten Persiel (documentary)

    Trattoria by Soleen Yusef

    Westerland by Tim Staffel

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  • Ten More World Premieres Added to 2012 Berlinale

    [caption id="attachment_2178" align="alignnone" width="550"]In the Land of Blood and Honey[/caption]

    An additional ten world premieres will be screening in the Competition programme of the Berlinale 2012. Directors Billy Bob Thornton, Christian Petzold, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Benedek Fliegauf, Hans-Christian Schmid, Matthias Glasner, Miguel Gomes, Alain Gomis, Ursula Meier and Spiros Stathoulopoulos will all be competing for this year’s Berlinale Bears.

    On the first weekend of the Festival, Angelina Jolie will be presenting her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele’s new cinema.


    Competition

    Aujourd´hui
    France/Senegal
    By Alain Gomis (L´Afrance, Andalucia)
    With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M’bengue
    World premiere

    Barbara
    Germany
    By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben)
    With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld
    World premiere

    Cesare deve morire (Caesar Must Die)
    Italy
    By Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone, La notte di San Lorenzo, La masseria delle allodole, San Michele aveva un gallo)
    With Fabio Cavalli, Salvatore Striano
    World premiere

    Gnade
    Germany/Norway
    By Matthias Glasner (The Free Will, Sexy Sadie)
    With Jürgen Vogel, Birgit Minichmayr, Henry Stange
    World premiere

    Jayne Mansfield’s Car
    Russian Federation/USA
    By Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade, The King of Luck, All the pretty Horses)
    With Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon
    World premiere

    L´enfant d´en haut (Sister)
    Switzerland/France
    By Ursula Meier (Tous à table, Des épaules solides, Home)
    With Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Gillian Anderson, Martin Compston
    World premiere

    Metéora (Meteora)
    Germany/Greece
    By Spiros Stathoulopoulos (PVC-1)
    With Theo Alexander, Tamila Koulieva
    World premiere

    Tabu
    Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France
    By Miguel Gomes (The Face You Deserve, Our Beloved Month Of August)
    With Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta
    World premiere

    Csak a szél (Just The Wind)
    Hungary/Germany/France
    By Benedek Fliegauf (Dealer, Rengeteg, Tejút, Womb)
    With Lajos Sárkány, Katalin Toldi, Gyöngyi Lendvai, Géza Jungwirth
    World premiere

    Was bleibt (Home For The Weekend)
    Germany
    By Hans-Christian Schmid (Storm, Requiem, Distant Lights)
    With Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Sebastian Zimmler, Ernst Stötzner
    World premiere


    Berlinale Special

    In The Land Of Blood And Honey
    USA
    By Angelina Jolie (directorial debut)
    With Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Šrbedžija, Vanesa Glodjo
    German premiere

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  • Cave of Forgotten Dreams and A Separation Among Winners of NY Film Critics Circle Awards

    [caption id="attachment_2176" align="alignnone"]Best First Film – J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call [/caption]

    The Artist continues to dominate Awards season, taking home the Best Picture and Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Cave of Forgotten Dreams took home the award for Best Documentary, A Separation received the award for Best Foreign Film and J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call was honored with Best First Film award.

    The 2011 New York Film Critics Circle Awards

    Best Picture
    The Artist

    Best Director
    Michel Hazanavicius
    The Artist

    Best Screenplay
    Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
    Moneyball

    Best Actress
    Meryl Streep
    The Iron Lady

    Best Actor
    Brad Pitt
    Moneyball, The Tree of Life

    Best Supporting Actress
    Jessica Chastain
    The Tree of Life, The Help, Take Shelter

    Best Supporting Actor
    Albert Brooks
    Drive

    Best Cinematographer
    Emmanuel Lubezki
    The Tree of Life

    Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams

    Best Foreign Film
    A Separation

    Best First Film
    J.C. Chandor
    Margin Call

    Special Award
    Raoul Ruiz

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  • Directors Guild of America Announces 5 Nominees for 2011 DGA Award

    [caption id="attachment_2174" align="alignnone"]MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS – The Artist-[/caption]

    The Directors Guild of America announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

    “The directors nominated this year for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award have each demonstrated an inspired command of the medium.  The fact that their prodigious talents have been recognized by their peers is the highest honor a director can achieve,” said DGA President Taylor Hackford.  “I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of the nominees.”

    The winner will be named at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland.

    The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

    WOODY ALLEN

    Midnight in Paris
    (Sony Pictures Classics)
    Mr. Allen’s Directorial Team:

    Unit Production Managers:  Matthieu Rubin, Helen Robin
    First Assistant Director:  Gil Kenny
    Second Assistant Director:  Delphine Bertrand

    This is Mr. Allen’s fifth DGA Feature Film Award nomination.  He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Annie Hall (1977), and was previously nominated in that category for Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).  Mr. Allen was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

    DAVID FINCHER

    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    (Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

    Mr. Fincher’s Directorial Team:

    Unit Production Manager:  Daniel M. Stillman
    First Assistant Director:  Bob Wagner
    Second Assistant Director:  Allen Kupetsky
    Production Manager (Sweden Unit): Karolina Heimburg
    Second Assistant Directors (Sweden Unit): Hanna Nilsson, Pontus Klänge
    2nd Second Assistant Director (Sweden Unit): Niklas Sjöström
    2nd Second Assistant Director (U.S. Unit):  Maileen Williams
    Unit Production Manager (Zurich Unit): Christos Dervenis
    Unit Production Manager (U.K. Unit): Lara Baldwin
    Second Assistant Director (U.K. Unit): Paul Taylor

    This is Mr. Fincher’s third DGA Feature Film Award nomination.  He was previously nominated in this category last year for The Social Network and for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008.  He previously won the DGA Commercial Award for Speed Chain (Nike), Gamebreakers (Nikegridiron.com), and Beauty for Sale (Xelibri Phones) in 2003 and was nominated in that category again in 2008.

    MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS

    The Artist
    (The Weinstein Company)

    Mr. Hazanavicius’ Directorial Team:

    Unit Production Manager:  Antoine De Cazotte
    Production Manager (FR): Ségoléne Fleury
    First Assistant Director (FR): James Canal
    First Assistant Director (US):  David Cluck
    Second Assistant Director:  Dave Paige
    Second Second Assistant Directors: Karla Strum, Ricky Robinson 

    This is Mr. Hazanavicius’ first DGA Feature Film Award nomination.

    ALEXANDER PAYNE

    The Descendants
    (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

    Mr. Payne’s Directorial Team:

    Unit Production Manager:  George Parra
    First Assistant Director:  Richard L. Fox
    Second Assistant Director:  Scott August
    Second Second Assistant Director:  Amy Wilkins Bronson

    This is Mr. Payne’s second DGA Feature Film Award nomination.  He was previously nominated in that category for Sideways in 2004.

    MARTIN SCORSESE

    Hugo
    (Paramount Pictures)

    Mr. Scorsese’s Directorial Team:

    Unit Production Managers:  Charles Newirth, Georgia Kacandes, Angus More Gordon
    First Assistant Director:  Chris Surgent
    Second Assistant Director:  Richard Graysmark
    Second Assistant Directors:  Tom Brewster, Fraser Fennell-Ball
    Production Managers (Paris Unit): Michael Sharp, Gilles Castera
    First Assistant Director (Paris Unit): Ali Cherkaoui

    This is Mr. Scorsese’s ninth DGA Award nomination.  He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2006 for The Departed, and was previously nominated in that category for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Aviator (2004). Mr. Scorsese also won the DGA Award last year for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Television for Boardwalk Empire.  In 1999, Mr. Scorsese was presented with the Filmmaker Award at the inaugural DGA Honors Gala, and he was honored with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

    The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been one of the industry’s most accurate barometers for who will win the Best Director Academy Award.

    Only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the Feature Film winner not gone on to win the corresponding Academy Award.

    The six exceptions are as follows:

    1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!
    1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret.
    1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa.
    1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters selected Mel Gibson for Braveheart.
    2000: Ang Lee won the DGA Award for his direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Traffic.
    2002: Rob Marshall won the DGA Award for Chicago while Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist.

     

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  • SFFS Announces Call for Applications for Spring 2012 KRF Filmmaking Grants

    [caption id="attachment_48" align="alignnone"]The interior of the San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema[/caption]

    The San Francisco Film Society and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation announce the January 10 opening of the application period for the Spring 2012 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants. The grants are given twice a year to filmmakers for narrative feature films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, discrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time. The grants also support films that have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. Between 2009 and 2013 the SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants will award nearly $2.5 million, including more than $1 million awarded in the first six grant rounds. The letter of inquiry period for the seventh round of SFFS/KRF Filmmaking grants — totaling up to $300,000 for screenwriting, development, preproduction, production and postproduction — opens January 10; the early deadline is February 1 and the late deadline is February 8.

    Winners of the Spring 2012 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking grants will be announced in early April. 

    For additional information, including guidelines and application, visit sffs.org/Filmmaker-Services/Grants.

    SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants are made possible by the vision and generosity of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The grants support work by local filmmakers as well as attract projects of the highest quality to the Bay Area, providing tangible encouragement and support to meaningful projects and benefiting the local economy. In addition to a cash grant, recipients will receive various benefits through the Film Society’s comprehensive and dynamic filmmaker services programs.

    Five filmmaking teams working in various stages of production were awarded funds in the most recent round of SFFS/KRF grants:

    Lance Edmands, Kyle Martin: Bluebird
    $97,000 for production
    In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the community balance, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.

    Eric Escobar: One Good Thing
    $15,000 for screenwriting
    A jaded and bitter locksmith spends his days locking families out of their foreclosed homes. When a morning lockout turns up the abandoned child of a long-lost friend, his cynicism is put in check as he races to find the missing parents. For more information visit kontentfilms.com.

    Ian Hendrie, Jyson McLean: Mercy Road
    $35,000 for screenwriting
    Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the political and spiritual odyssey of a small-town Christian housewife as she slowly turns from a peaceful pro-life activist to an underground militant willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.

    Chris Mason Johnson: Test
    $60,000 for production
    The year is 1985. The youngest, skinniest and most mocked member of San Francisco’s new contemporary ballet company begins a friendship with a brilliant dancer with a bad boy reputation in the same troupe. As lurid headlines threaten a gay quarantine, the two friends navigate a world full of risk that is also full of promise. For more information visit thenewtwentymovie.com.

    Oden Roberts, Azura Skye: Rosie Got Her Gun
    $100,000 for production
    Following a series of arrests, a troubled young woman struggling to avoid prison time is visited by an opportunistic Army recruiter. For more information visit odenroberts.com.

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  • Jennifer Lawrence to JoinAcademy President Tom Sherak to Announce Oscar® Nominations

     

    [caption id="attachment_2171" align="alignnone"]Jennifer Lawrence[/caption]

    Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence will join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak to announce the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards® on Tuesday, January 24.

    Sherak and Lawrence will unveil the nominations in 10 of the 24 categories at a 5:30 a.m. PT news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered. Nominations information for all categories will be distributed simultaneously to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

    Last year, for the 83rd Academy Awards, Lawrence received a nomination for her lead performance in “Winter’s Bone.” She will be seen next in “The Hunger Games” and recently completed work on “The Silver Linings Playbook.” Lawrence’s other film credits include “The Burning Plain,” “Like Crazy,” “The Beaver” and “X-Men: First Class.”

    Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

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  • 7 Films Remain in Competition in Makeup Category for 84th Academy Awards

    [caption id="attachment_2169" align="alignnone"]Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life[/caption]

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the name of the seven films that remain in competition in the Makeup category for the 84th Academy Awards®.

    The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

    “Albert Nobbs”
    “Anonymous”
    “The Artist”
    “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”
    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
    “Hugo”
    “The Iron Lady”

    On Saturday, January 21, all members of the Academy’s Makeup Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

    The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, and the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

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  • Melancholia Voted Best Film of the Year by National Society of Film Critics

    [caption id="attachment_2167" align="alignnone"]Melancholia [/caption]

    “Melancholia”  was chosen as Best Picture of the Year 2011 by the National Society of Film Critics. Kristin Dunst was named best actress for her performance in Lars von Trier’s film, and Brad Pitt was named best actor for his work in “Moneyball” and “The Tree of Life.” Albert Brooks won best supporting actor for his appearance in “Drive,” and Jessica Chastain was named best supporting actress for her work in three films: “The Tree of Life,” “Take Shelter” and “The Help.”

    See below for all votes in Best Picture and other categories for outstanding film achievement.

    The Society, which is made up of 58 of the country’s most prominent movie critics, held its 46th annual awards voting meeting at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City, using a weighted ballot system. Scrolls will be sent to the winners.

    BEST ACTOR
    *1. Brad Pitt – 35 (Moneyball, The Tree of Life)
    2. Gary Oldman – 22 (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
    3. Jean Dujardin – 19 (The Artist)

    BEST ACTRESS
    *1. Kirsten Dunst – 39 (Melancholia)
    2. Yun Jung-hee – 25 (Poetry)
    3. Meryl Streep – 20 (The Iron Lady)

    BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
    *1. Albert Brooks – 38 (Drive)
    2. Christopher Plummer – 24 (Beginners)
    3. Patton Oswalt – 19 (Young Adult)

    BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
    *1. Jessica Chastain – 30 (The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help)
    2. Jeannie Berlin – 19 (Margaret)
    3. Shailene Woodley – 17 (The Descendants)

    BEST PICTURE
    *1. Melancholia – 29 (Lars von Trier)
    2. The Tree of Life – 28 (Terrence Malick)
    3. A Separation – 20 (Asghar Farhadi)

    BEST DIRECTOR
    *1. Terrence Malick – 31 (The Tree of Life)
    2. Martin Scorsese – 29 (Hugo)
    3. Lars von Trier – 23 (Melancholia)

    BEST NONFICTION
    *1. Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 35 (Werner Herzog)
    2. The Interrupters – 26 (Steve James)
    3. Into the Abyss – 18 (Werner Herzog)

    BEST SCREENPLAY
    *1. A Separation – 39 (Asghar Farhadi)
    2. Moneyball – 22 (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin)
    3. Midnight in Paris – 16 (Woody Allen)

    BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
    *1. A Separation – 67 (Asghar Farhadi)
    2. Mysteries of Lisbon – 28 (Raoul Ruiz)
    3. Le Havre – 22 (Aki Kaurismäki)

    BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
    *1. The Tree of Life – 76 (Emanuel Lubezki)
    2. Melancholia – 41 (Manuel Alberto Claro)
    3. Hugo – 33 (Robert Richardson)

    EXPERIMENTAL
    Ken Jacobs, for “Seeking the Monkey King.”

    FILM HERITAGE
    1. BAMcinématek for its complete Vincente Minnelli retrospective with all titles shown on 16 mm. or 35 mm. film.
    2. Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema for the restoration of the color version of George Méliès’s “A Trip to the Moon.”
    3. New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its extensive retrospective of Weimar Cinema.
    4. Flicker Alley for their box set “Landmarks of Early Soviet Film.”
    5. Criterion Collecton for its 2-disc DVD package “The Complete Jean Vigo.”

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  • Special Flight Among Lineup for 9th Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto

    [caption id="attachment_2165" align="alignnone"]Special Flight[/caption]

    The 9th Human Rights Watch Film Festival opens on February 29, 2012 in Toronto Canada at TIFF Bell Lightbox with Fernand Melgar’s documentary Special Flight, a portrait of the legal limbo that faces thousands of detainees in Switzerland’s Frambois detention centre as refugees anxiously await confirmation of their requests for asylum. The festival is a co-presentation between TIFF and Human Rights Watch, and will run until March 9.

    Festival highlights include Jon Shenk’s The Island President (2011), winner of the Cadillac People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011, which follows Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed as he tries to save his country from being inundated by rising sea levels – the result of global warming; Pamela Yates’ Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011), a haunting tale of genocide and delayed justice that spans four decades, two films, and director Yates’ own career; Mimi Chakarova’s The Price of Sex (2011), a startling exposé of sex trafficking in Europe and the Middle East; and Sundance and Emmy Award-winning director Lee Hirsch’s The Bully Project (2011), which acts as a catalyst for change by confronting the prejudices which spark bullying and giving voice to those who work tirelessly to protect the vulnerable.

    “The lineup of timely films in this festival inform and remind audiences of human rights issues being faced around the world,” said Helga Stephenson, chairperson of the festival. “The themes that emerge this year – the plight of refugees, the trafficking of young women, bullying among teens – are extremely relevant. We hope the films will provide a springboard for discussion and increase awareness of human rights issues – both locally and globally.”

    The full line-up of films follows.


    Special Flight (Vol spécial)   Dir: Fernand Melgar

    Wednesday, February 29 at 8pm  *OPENING NIGHT*

    In Switzerland’s Frambois detention centre, refugees anxiously await confirmation of their requests for asylum while living in fear of the “special flights” that face those who are rejected, returning them to their countries of origin and crushing their dreams of a new life. Fernand Melgar’s film is a deeply affecting portrait of the legal limbo that faces thousands of detainees every year. Melgar evocatively captures the atmosphere of agonizing tedium and sudden, shocking rupture that characterizes these institutions: deportation notices arrive swiftly, with no option for appeal, and the physical removals from the centre are even more harrowing as the wardens often develop deep connections with the detainees.


    Habibi   Dir: Susan Youssef

    Thursday, March 1 at 8pm

    While shooting her documentary Forbidden to Wander, Susan Youssef travelled the Gaza Strip and observed how restricted access impeded development and stability, deepened poverty and radicalized the political conflict, with the resulting violence and despair permeating communities and individual psyches alike. This experience informed the making of Habibi, a tragic romance about Layla (Maisa Abd Elhadi) and Qays (Kais Nashef), university students whose blossoming passion is interrupted when they are forced to
    return home to their families, their student visas having been revoked during the latest wave of restrictions. The young lovers find themselves trapped between the physical barriers of political oppression and the restrictive, patriarchal ideology of the oppressed.


    The Bully Project   Dir: Lee Hirsch

    Friday, March 2 at 8pm

    News stories across North America attest to the destructive impact of bullying, as dozens of teens every year commit suicide following histories of emotional and physical violence from their peers that went unchecked and unchanged. Sundance and Emmy-award winning director Lee Hirsch spent a year documenting the lives of tormented teens and their families, exposing shocking scenes of verbal and physical abuse and vividly depicting bureaucratic indifference or impotence, parents who are powerless to help, and innocent kids on the cusp of adulthood who desperately cling to the slim hope that “things will get better.” The Bully Project acts as a catalyst for change by confronting the prejudices which spark bullying and giving voice to those who work tirelessly to protect the vulnerable.


    Color of the Ocean (Die Farbe des Ozeans)   Dir: Maggie Peren

    Saturday, March 3 at 8pm

    Located off the coast of northwest Africa, the Canary Islands are both a tourist paradise and a purgatory for refugees. Border guard José (Alex González) is cynical about his work, but his weary attitude is put to the test when he encounters Nathalie (Sabine Timoteo), a German tourist assisting a boatload of refugees she discovered landing on the coast. When one of the refugees, a Congolese man named Zola (Hubert Koundé), is placed in an internment camp with his son, Nathalie determines to help them escape – but the two soon find themselves in yet another precarious situation, in which they are dependent on nefarious smugglers.


    Burma Soldier   Dirs: Nic Dunlop, Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern

    Sunday, March 4 at 8pm

    Myo Myint’s decision to enlist in the Burmese army at the age of seventeen was not motivated by ideology, but simply because it was the only path to employment, respect and security. In this capacity he supported the brutal military junta that dominated the nation for nearly half a century until he lost a limb to a mortar explosion, and emerged from this trauma as an activist determined to bring democracy to his country. Speaking from the Umpeim Mai refugee camp in northern Thailand as he awaits refugee status, Myint gives a sobering record of his experiences and his suffering at the hands of the military regime he once served, including over a decade in solitary confinement for voicing his disapproval of the junta. Myint’s story, illustrated by archival footage smuggled out of Burma, is a vivid account of an individual’s sacrifice to help change the lives of millions.


    This Is My Land… Hebron   Dirs: Giulia Amati & Stephen Natanson

    Monday, March 5 at 8pm

    The largest city in the occupied West Bank and the site of one of the first Israeli settlements there, Hebron is populated by 160,000 Palestinians and 600 Israeli settlers who require a garrison of 2,000 Israeli soldiers for protection. For these unwilling neighbours, conflict has become a way of life, and directors Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson capture this charged situation through the multiple, interweaving narratives of residents and observers. Featuring interviews with ordinary Israelis and Palestinians living in the city, activists on both sides, prominent Ha’aretz journalists and members of the Israeli parliament, This Is My Land… Hebron is a vivid portrait of a chasm between cultures.


    The Price of Sex   Dir: Mimi Chakarova

    Tuesday, March 6 at 8pm

    Award-winning photojournalist Mimi Chakarova delves into the world of international sex trafficking in this startling exposé, revealing the cruel conditions that have forced thousands of women into a life defined by fear, shame and violence. With brutal honesty and courageous perseverance, these young women relate how they were bought, sold, and taken far from home to toil in brothels across Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. The culmination of an eight-year investigative journalism project that took Chakarova through Moldova, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Dubai, The Price of Sex boldly brings this ever more pressing issue into stark relief, and was awarded Human Rights Watch International’s 2011 Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking.


    Granito: How to Nail a Dictator   Dir: Pamela Yates

    Thursday, March 8 at 8pm

    Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito takes us through a haunting tale of genocide and delayed justice that spans four decades, two films, and director Pamela Yates’ own career. While filming in Guatemala, then under the harsh military dictatorship of General Efraín Ríos Montt, to make her 1982 documentary When the Mountains Tremble, Yates managed to capture the only known footage of the Guatemalan army as it carried out its genocidal campaign against the indigenous Mayan population. Twenty-five years later, this footage becomes evidence in an international war crimes case against the very army commander who permitted Yates to film. Conducting new interviews with activists, witnesses and forensic experts, Yates herself joins this disparate movement of truth-seekers, each of them contributing their own granito, or grain of sand, to the reconstruction of collective memory and the pursuit of justice.


    The Island President    Dir: Jon Shenk

    Friday, March 9 at 8pm  *CLOSING NIGHT*

    Cadillac People’s Choice Documentary Award, Toronto International Film Festival 2011

    Mohamed Nasheed spent two decades leading a pro-democracy movement against a cruel dictatorship in the Maldives, suffering imprisonments and torture until groundswell support elected him president at age 41. Suddenly he found himself facing a new crisis: the possible extinction of his own country. If ocean levels continue to rise at their current rate, over a thousand coral islands of the Maldives will be submerged like a modern Atlantis. Obtaining remarkable access to Nasheed during his first year in office, director Jon Shenk offers both an inspiring personal story and an insider’s look at the dirty business of political deal-making during the 2009 climate change summit at Copenhagen. Featuring stunning cinematography and a haunting score by Radiohead, The Island President is one of the year’s most essential documentaries.

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