Thursday, January 11-----One of the highlights of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival (at least for me) is the opportunity to see the latest film from Hal Hartley, who really put independent film on the map back in the day when it was still a small community of individual risktakers. With such films as THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH (1989), TRUST (1990), SIMPLE MEN (1992) and AMATEUR (1992), Hartley stood at the nexus of European film artistry and American independent virtuosity. His last few films h...
Saturday/Sunday, October 21/22-----THE ARCHITECT is a sophisticated urban drama about a Chicago architect (played by Anthony LaPaglia) confronted by an outspoken female activist (Viola Davis) living in a dangerous housing project of his design. LaPaglia plays Leo Waters, an idealistic architect and patriarch of an affluent, suburban Chicago family. Viola Davis is Tonya Neeley, a pragmatic activist who is trying to keep her family together while living in one of the city’s most drug and crime...
Friday, October 20----It is a rather unusual career move for a film distributor to transition from buying and selling films to actually making them, but that is exactly what Jeff Lipsky has done. After co-founding October Films (which was bought out by Universal Pictures and eventually morphed into Focus Features) and Lot 47 Films, releasing indie and international gems such as Lars Von Trier's BREAKING THE WAVES, Mike Leigh's SECRETS AND LIES, David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, Michael Cuesta's L.I....
Saturday, October 14----Aside from all the films, the parties, the music concerts and other special events, the Woodstock Film Festival offers local filmmakers and visiting film talents an intensive education on all aspects of the filmmaking and distribution process through an exhaustive series of professional seminars. Drawing mainly on film executives, film critics and film mavens from Manhattan (only 100 miles to the south), the Festival offers a rare opportunity to get the lowdown on the s...
The 15th Annual Gotham Awards Winners will be awarded at the ceremony on November 30 in New York City. Executive Director Michelle Byrd said the nominees were selected by three separate nominating committees composed of critics and film programmers. Nominees for a final competitive juried award, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You (for films yet to receive theatrical distribution), will be announced in early November. A jury of peers will decide the winning selections in all six categori...
The Second Annual Zoom In Awards announces the members of its jury for.The Second Annual Zoom In Awards honors the largely unrecognized below-the-line talent whose contributions to film and television are defining the future of Digital Production. The jury will be selecting the best work from each of the following categories: Editing; Cinematography; and Graphics & FX. Winners and Finalists will be invited to The Zoom In Awards Cocktail Party in February, 2006, where they will have the opportuni...
