Recent advances in technology have put digital tools into the hands of a wide variety of filmmakers. It was only a matter of time until a savvy festival programmer decided to showcase content created with this evolving art form. Jussi Myllyniemi founded the Clone Digital Film Festival with the philosophy that the very best films deserved a venue and a festival that would expose them to new audiences. In addition, Jussi realized that fellow filmmakers and audiences alike wanted to know the storie...
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival opened with the premiere of director Brett Morgan’s animated feature “Chicago 10”. The director is an alumni of the festival and first appeared here with his biopic of legendary producer Robert Evans “The Kid Stays in the Picture”. This feature combines motion capture animation and archival footage to explore trial of 10 activists accused of inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The film looks into the heart of the sixties rad...
A very different film festival took place in Los Angeles last night with cinema buffs huddled around cell phones rather than gazing up at the big screen to view and vote for their favorite short movie. More than 200 attendees cast their votes in real time via text messaging powered by Mozes.com to select the $3,000 Jury Prize winning film – a 90 second comedy entitled “Pumpkin” by Matt Paige of Sante Fe, New Mexico. An alum of the College of Sante Fe where he’s now an adjunct professor t...
The fifth annual Tribeca Film Festival wrapped here Sunday with a political and international selection of winners including three war themed films which took the top prizes. Tristan Bauers tale of a Falklands War soldier won the Founders award, while Deborah Scrantons Iraq-themed The War Tapes took the Best Documentary prize. The audience award went to Linda Hattendrfs “The Cats of Mirikitani” the tale of an American who lost family in the Hiroshima bombings.Figures show this years fest att...
One of the highlights of this springs Tribeca Film Festival is sure to be the Animated New York program curated by Bill Plympton. When people think of New York City’s filmmakers most are unaware of the thriving, diverse independent animation community .Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice , as well as the magazines Vogue , Rolling Stone , Vanity Fair , Penthouse , and National Lampoon . His political cartoon strip "Plympton", ...
One of the highlights of this springs Tribeca Film Festival is sure to be the Animated New York program curated by Bill Plympton. When people think of New York City’s filmmakers most are unaware of the thriving, diverse independent animation community .Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been printed in The New York Times and The Village Voice , as well as the magazines Vogue , Rolling Stone , Vanity Fair , Penthouse , and National Lampoon . His political cartoon strip "Plympton", ...
The 25th Sundance Film Festival wrapped here Sunday with screening of the award winning films. For the first time in the festivals history two films took both the audience and jury prizes in the narrative and documentary categories. “Quincenara”, which offers insight into Hispanic family culture through the eyes of teenagers living in Los Angeles, earned the best dramatic film honor from the Sundance jury of five film industry veterans as well as the top drama prize from audience members. Ma...
Bend - the second annual Bend film Festival wrapped on Sunday with an awards gala that presented over $20,000 in cash prizes to independent filmmakers. Top honors went to Hank Rogersons “Shakespeare behind Bars” which follows a group of convicts who stage Shakespeare's play “The Tempest” and chronicles their growth as they produce the play.The audience award is funded by a percentage of ticket sales and will net the documentary film “The Real Dirt on Farmer John’ over $7500 . The fil...
The 35 annual Seattle Arts Festival known as ‘Bumbershoot’ wrapped here on Labor Day with fire drums, dancers and fireworks exploding out of the Great Volcano. Attendee’s and artists at this years festival raised over $30,000 for the victims of Hurricane Katrina over the holiday weekend. The festival combines visual art, the Flatstock poster exhibition, comedy, dance and musical artists ranging from local buskers to headlining acts like Elvis Costello or the New York Dolls. Most events ar...
Bend Oregon – the debut of central Oregon’s new film festival successfully wrapped up here Sunday evening.Locals and filmmakers we’re treated to an encore presentation of the award winning films. Those honored included Director Catherine Tambini and her documentary “Farmingville”. Catherine was presented with a 10,000.00 check by Juror Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Good Will Hunting) on Saturday evening at the awards ceremony. Catherine’s film explores the issues revolving around the attem...
Ferenc Toth's Unknown Soldier, Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace, and Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation were among the winners Saturday night at the closing of the 10th annual Los Angeles Film Festival. Tarnation was created by director Cauoette on his Macintosh computer i - Movie program for a reported $293.00. Filmmakers Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell executive produced this charming biography. Tarnation, which centers on the troubled life of the director--who grew up gay with a schizo...
TANKUP DRIVES TO NEWPORTThe mockumentary “TankUp.US” was featured as The Newport Beach Film Festival opened its fifth annual event.The Festival’s selection committee reviewed more than 1,500 films. This year's schedule included more than 120 features and documentaries. In addition, more than 200 short films were showcased, making it one of the largest short film programs within a feature film festival in the entire nation. “TankUp.US” was programmed in the 'Global Eco Shorts' screeni...
