2013 Sundance Film Festival Announces Feature Film Awards
Today at Sundance — Day 10: Awards Ceremony, and your last chance to catch Festival premieres
Today at Sundance — Day 9: Ashton Kutcher carries the iTorch for Steve Jobs
Today at Sundance — Day 8: take a trip to the wild west with Ed Harris and January Jones in SWEETWATER
I’ll admit it. I don’t like that song one bit, but seeing Richard Jenkins (LIBERAL ARTS, Six Feet Under) sing along to Jason Mraz at his premiere party the other night certainly warmed my cockels. Celebrities, they’re just like us! They record their favorite acoustic performances on their iPhones!
On a stick. To see if she is pregnant. Otherwise, it is just weird.
Peter and Kristen are an interesting pair. They’re the most like a hetero couple…right down to the breakdown of responsibilities. She rears the children, and he makes the jokes.
Sundance Film Festival veteran, and Iconoclasts producer/director, Joe Berlinger stopped by Sundance Channel HQ right after he found out his film about the West Memphis Three, PARADISE LOST, had been nominated for an Oscar. Lucky us! Check out what Berlinger has say about some of the controversy surrounding the film, why the fight for justice isn’t over yet and how the Oscar nomination might help:
Two years ago, a tiny movie from a first-time filmmaker about a group of young, attractive New Yorkers struggling to balance their various romantic entanglements and impending adulthood, surprised festivalgoers by winning the coveted Audience Award at Sundance. Written and directed by Josh Radnor, best known as the lead on the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE won over audiences in Park City, Utah. And his sophomore feature, LIBERAL ARTS, elicited a standing ovation at the press and industry screening I attended.
Washed up rockstars seem to be a theme at Sundance this year (paging Sean Penn), but perhaps the most soulful portrayal of an over-the-hill musician belongs to Robert Carlyle in CALIFORNIA SOLO. The cast joined writer-director Marshall Lewy in the HQ studio. Check it out.
The market at Sundance ’12 was predicted to be “wild,” but started out “cautiously.” Now it looks to be heating up. After just a handful of acquisitions in the first few days of the festival, we’ve gotten a handful of acquisitions in the last few hours. Here’s a few more films that should be coming soon to an arthouse theater near you.
If there is one person everyone at Sundance Channel HQ has been excited to see come through the studio, it has to be Aubrey Plaza. The Parks and Recreation star joined castmates Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Jaran Soni and director Colin Trevorrow to talk about their film SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED. Check out all of the photos from their visit.
Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Chris Rock were all out partying in Park City last night. But, they were not alone. See who is still out at Sundance in our gallery.
They say third time is a charm, but director Michael Mohan was still pretty nervous on the way to the premiere of SAVE THE DATE. Mohan has had two shorts in the festival (EX-SEX and CASUAL ENCOUNTERS–I sense a theme), but this was his forst foray into features at the festival and Sundance Channel was happy to tag along. When we caught up with Mohan, he was still putting together his remarks to introduce the film. Then it was off to the Library Theatre for the big show. Cast members Lizzy Caplan, Allison Brie, Martin Starr, Mark Webber and Geoffrey Arend were on hand to keep Mohan calm.
Nothing in this world is guaranteed, especially not a positive response at the Sundance Film Festival. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED came to Sundance with a great premise and a better cast, but films with more impressive pedigrees riding bigger waves of buzz have crashed and burned in Park City.
Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (CRUDE, SOME KIND OF MONSTER) woke up in Park City this morning to the news his film PARADISE LOST: PURGATORY got an Oscar nomination. Berlinger stopped by the Sundance Channel HQ to talk about the honor and the twenty years he spent documenting the West Memphis Three. For those of you not familiar with the story, The West Memphis Three were teenagers convicted of murdering three young children back in 1994. Berlinger’s trilogy of films followed the young men’s trial, appeals and eventual release. Many people credit Berlinger’s films (co-directed with Bruce Sinofsky) with playing a role in securing the men’s release after 18 years in prison.
The Oscar nominations are in and, frankly, it was not Sundance’s best year at the Academy Awards. Though independent films made a very strong showing across the board, capturing some 60 total nominations, by and large Sundance alumni got lost in the shuffle. Films from the 2011 festival scored just four nominations. Et tu, Academy?
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain wrote in his suicide letter. The New York-based, electro-dance band LCD Soundsystem, which formed in 2001 and released three critically-acclaimed albums, took Cobain’s—by way of Neil Young’s—advice, choosing to abruptly retire at the height of their fame.
“What happened to Tracy Morgan?”
That was the question on everyone’s mind Monday morning at the Sundance Film Festival after hearing the 30 Rock star had collapsed at the festival Sunday evening. He was in town promoting the ensemble comedy PREDISPOSED, but ended up at the hospital. People immediately began speculating that substance abuse was to blame—a rumor that was quickly debunked by a hospital spokesman, who said no alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Two years ago, Morgan had a kidney transplant and is a diabetic. Turns out it was the altitude.
Pretty ladies making funny faces. That’s what happens when director Leslye Headland brings her BACHELORETTEs by for a chat. If these photos are any clue, the movie is going to be hysterical.
Ice-T is a rapper, actor and now…documentary director. And guess what? He stopped by Sundance Channel HQ (sans Coco, unfortunately) to drop some knowledge on his directorial debut SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: THE ART OF RAP. And while he maybe a superstar, it was important for Ice-T to keep this project indie. Check out what he has to say on why Hollywood couldn’t tell this story:
In Park City, when you hear “Omar’s comin’” you don’t need to run and hide. You just need to stand back and be impressed by how handsome and stylish Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) is! We’ve got plenty more street style in our gallery. So take a look:
You were probably expecting a laugh fest when you saw the names Octavia Spencer, Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul for the film SMASHED. Sorry, it’s a drama. But, that doesn’t mean there were not laughs aplenty when they all stopped by Sundance Channel HQ for a chat. Check out the entire video of their conversation, but just a warning…it includes some off color jokes, in addition to more serious fare on how films are cast in Hollywood.
The independent film world lost one of its champions today. Bingham Ray, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society, died of complications following a stroke he suffered late last week while attending the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He was 57.
Spike Lee’s best movies are always polarizing. DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X, BAMBOOZLED; Lee has built his reputation on provocative, controversial cinema. In that regard at least, Lee’s new film, RED HOOK SUMMER, finds the director in fine form. It divided the Park City crowd, and then Lee himself took the stage for a Q&A that got them really riled up.
Josh Radnor’s LIBERAL ARTS got a standing ovation at its premiere here in Park City. And with an ensemble cast including Allison Janney (THE HELP), Elizabeth Olsen (MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE), Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) as well as Radnor himself, it’s no surprise. The How I Met Your Mother star wrote and directed the film and it marks his second trip to Sundance as a triple-threat. Like that 2010 effort, happythankyoumoreplease it’s a sweet story…which is a nice change to all of the ‘Year of the Bummer’ films we’ve seen at this year’s festival. We stopped by the premiere party and caught up with Elizabeth Olsen to get the lowdown on her sophomore Sundance and working with some acting legends.
The Sundance Film Festival founder stopped by the HQ to talk independent films and the state of the union.
Aamer Haleem interviews the director Lauren Greenfield of THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES for Festival Insider. Check out the gallery below for more!
The director Kirby Dick of THE INVISIBLE WAR interview for Festival Insider. Click below to see the full gallery!
Directors Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman of ESCAPE FIRE interview for Festival Insider. Click below to see the full gallery!