News

The Smithsonian Museum has commissioned a series of eight forward-looking shorts exploring social justice issues facing diverse communities across the U.S. to screen as part of its major upcoming November “Futures” exhibition.

“Futures We Dream” consists of new works created over the past year by nine independent filmmakers selected via a partnership with the non-profit Alliance for Media Arts + Culture.

Musician LL Cool J and “Friends” executive producer and director Kevin Bright, both advisors to the museum, are co-chairs of the series. They helped pick the Alliance as a partner, craft the project’s call for entries, and provide feedback on rough cuts.

The exhibition exploring visions of the future will run through July 2022 at America’s oldest national museum, the Smithsonian’s historic Arts and Industries Building (Aib), which opened in 1881. Intended as a celebration of the institution’s 175th anniversary, it will feature nearly 32,000 square feet of new immersive site-specific art installations,...

From The Beverly Hillbillies to Buckwild, and from Coal Miner’s Daughter to Deliverance, the face of Appalachia has long been defined (and stereotyped and exploited) by the Hollywood eye. And in the wake of the 2016 presidential election the caricaturing continued, this time at the hands (and pens) of the press corps on the other coastal liberal side. Enter native Appalachian documentarians Sally Rubin (Deep Down) and Ashley York (Tig) to remedy historical wrongs. In their La Film Festival Best Documentary Feature winner hillbilly the duo systematically take a wrecking ball to every highly offensive yet socially acceptable white trash […]...

From The Beverly Hillbillies to Buckwild, and from Coal Miner’s Daughter to Deliverance, the face of Appalachia has long been defined (and stereotyped and exploited) by the Hollywood eye. And in the wake of the 2016 presidential election the caricaturing continued, this time at the hands (and pens) of the press corps on the other coastal liberal side. Enter native Appalachian documentarians Sally Rubin (Deep Down) and Ashley York (Tig) to remedy historical wrongs. In their La Film Festival Best Documentary Feature winner hillbilly the duo systematically take a wrecking ball to every highly offensive yet socially acceptable white trash […]...

Since the 2016 presidential election, Americans have been urged to reach “outside the bubble.” As Donald Trump’s presidential victory made the deep divisions in this country painfully clear, the following years have only solidified the belief on both sides that half the country is completely unreachable. In the new documentary “Hillbilly,” filmmakers Ashley York and Sally Rubin posit that no group is more misunderstood than Appalachian Americans, a group that has either been totally neglected by the media or unjustly maligned with caricatures and stereotypes.

The official synopsis reads: “‘hillbilly’ goes on a personal and political journey into the heart of the Appalachian coalfields, exploring the role of media representation in the creation of the iconic American ‘hillbilly,’ and examining the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of this infamous stereotype. Filmed in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, ‘hillbilly’ uncovers an unexpected set of artists, poets, activists, queer musicians,...

Sharon Van Etten ventures into dark, cinematic dance-rock with “Comeback Kid,” the lead single from her newly announced fifth LP, Remind Me Tomorrow, out January 18th, 2019 via Jagjaguwar.

The singer-songwriter, known primarily for her guitar- and piano-driven arrangements, shifts into full-on synth mode with “Comeback Kid,” crooning over whirring keys and a jagged, tumbling drum groove. “Hey, you’re the comeback kid, see me look away/ I’m the runaway,” she sings, the first of several fragmented lyrics.

Van Etten worked with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Future Islands, Lana Del Rey...

The newest of the fall festivals wraps up today, and the Los Angeles Film Festival has announced Tom Shadyac’s powerful and inspiring true story Brian Banks as winner of its Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film and the acclaimed Stuntman as Audience Award choice winner for Best Documentary Feature. As the Toronto Film Festival annually proves, it is the Audience Award that often gets the most attention and is most representative of a particular film’s success at many of these fests.

At its world premiere screening Saturday afternoon, Brian Banks received five standing ovations by my count as the key creative team and actors were brought up on stage by Banks himself after the rousing reception to the emotionally draining film. It’s the story of a promising young football star’s fight against the justice system in trying to clear his name after serving prison time and...

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has set “Hillbilly” as its opening film on Oct. 16 and “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Stories of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” to close the festival, Variety has learned exclusively.

“Hillbilly,” directed by Ashley York and Sally Rubin, will open the 27th annual festival on Oct. 16 in Hot Springs, Ar. The festival touts itself as the longest-running all-documentary film festival in North America.

“In the aftermath of the 2016 election, there has been a palpable divide between urban and rural regions of the United States. As an established festival in the South, it is our aim to close this gap by exploring our southern identity as it relates to the current political climate,” said Jennifer Gerber, executive director.

“Hillbilly” examines the iconic hillbilly image in media and culture and explores more than 100 years of media representation of mountain and rural people. York, a liberal feminist living in Los Angeles,...

Film Independent’s Los Angeles event boasts 42% female-directed entries.

Film Independent’s La Film Festival has unveiled the line-ups for five of its sections, with Gregory Dixon’s Olympia, Alex Moratto’s Socrates and Linda Midgett’s Same God among the world premieres.

The festival, which runs from September 20 to 28 this year in Los Angeles, announced 40 features, 41 shorts and 10 episodic shorts from a total of 26 countries.

In competition categories, 42% of the festival titles are directed by women and 39% by people of colour, said Film Independent, the non-profit that also produces the Spirit Awards.

Scroll down for full line-up

Jennifer Cochis,...

The La Film Festival has placed a heavy emphasis on diversity in its competition film slate, with 42% of the films directed by women and 39% helmed by people of color.

The 24th edition of the festival is also positioning itself as an event for unveiling lesser-known talent. It will take place Sept. 20-28 as it moves from its traditional June slot to the fall awards season.

The Los Angeles event follow the Venice International Film Festival, which begins in late August; the Telluride Film Festival, which runs over Labor Day; and the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, which starts on Sept. 6. The festival will end just as the New York Film Festival begins.

“Our mission of finding fresh new voices from different geographical and cultural axes remains true,” said L Film Festival director Jennifer Cochis. “These storytellers are united by their ability to transport, impact and inspire audiences with the power of their craft.

Forty feature films including 24 world premieres highlight the official La Film Festival competition lineup in the fest’s move into the crowded fall festival corridor, away from their previous early-summer perch.

Among the movies in competition is the highly regarded Swedish film Border (Grans) from director Ali Abbasi, a Neon pickup out of Cannes that took the top prize in that festival’s No. 2 competition, Un Certain Regard. It is listed as a “California Premiere,” which means it likely will show up first in Telluride, Toronto or both before Laff, which runs September 20-28. It will play in the World Fiction Competition across a field of categories that also include U.S. Fiction, Documentary, La Muse, Nightfall. Short Films, and Episodes: Indie Series from the web.

“Our mission of finding fresh new voices from different geographical and cultural axes remains true,” Laff Director Jennifer Cochis said. “These storytellers are united by their ability to transport,...

For its 24th edition, Film Independent’s newly configured Los Angeles Film Festival has revealed its first fall lineup (September 20 – 28), the second under the leadership of Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. The date moves Laff into awards season and direct competition with AFI Fest (November 8 – 15), the last of the fall festivals. This year’s Laff program includes 40 feature films, 41 short films, and 10 short episodic works representing 26 countries. Across the competition categories 42 percent of the films are directed by women and 39 percent are directed by people of color.

The festival remains committed to a diverse lineup of feature films, shorts and episodic series for its U.S. Fiction (“original voices with distinct visions from emerging and established American independent filmmakers”), Documentary (“character-driven non-fiction films from the U.S. and around the world”), World Fiction (“unique fiction films from around the world by emerging and established filmmakers”), La Muse (“fiction and documentary films...

For its 24th edition, Film Independent’s newly configured Los Angeles Film Festival has revealed its first fall lineup (September 20 – 28), the second under the leadership of Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. The date moves Laff into awards season and direct competition with AFI Fest (November 8 – 15), the last of the fall festivals. This year’s Laff program includes 40 feature films, 41 short films, and 10 short episodic works representing 26 countries. Across the competition categories 42 percent of the films are directed by women and 39 percent are directed by people of color.

The festival remains committed to a diverse lineup of feature films, shorts and episodic series for its U.S. Fiction (“original voices with distinct visions from emerging and established American independent filmmakers”), Documentary (“character-driven non-fiction films from the U.S. and around the world”), World Fiction (“unique fiction films from around the world by emerging and established filmmakers”), La Muse (“fiction and documentary films...

The Traverse City Film Festival is celebrating its 14th year in 2018 by bringing together some of the year’s best indies and documentaries, plus classics from Jonathan Demme, Hal Ashby, and more. The Michigan-set festival, backed by Michael Moore, is being run in 2018 by directors Susan Fisher and Meg Weichman, who have worked on the festival for nearly a decade and have been at the helm since December.

Tickets for this year’s edition will go on sale to the public on Saturday, July 21 (click here for the official festival website). Friends of the Film Festival will be able to get early access to tickets with advance sales starting Sunday, July 15.

The full lineup for the 2018 Traverse City Film Festival is below.

Opening Night: “Rbg”

Centerpiece: “Hearts Beat Loud”

Closing Night: “Burden”

Open Space

“Stop Making Sense,” Jonathan Demme

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” Jake Kasdan

“Coco,” Lee Unkrich

“Black Panther,...

This is definitely the time of year when film critic types (I’m sure you know who I mean) spend an inordinate amount of time leading up to awards season—and it all leads up to awards season, don’t it?—compiling lists and trying to convince anyone who will listen that it was a shitty year at the movies for anyone who liked something other than what they saw and liked. And ‘tis the season, or at least ‘thas (?) been in the recent past, for that most beloved of academic parlor games, bemoaning the death of cinema, which, if the sackcloth-and-ashes-clad among us are to be believed, is an increasingly detached and irrelevant art form in the process of being smothered under the wet, steaming blanket of American blockbuster-it is. And it’s going all malnourished from the siphoning off of all the talent back to TV, which, as everyone knows,...

A new crop of female directors received a boost from Los Angeles-based Women in Film, as the group doled out its Film Finishing Fund grants for feature, documentary and short films on Friday. Co-chairs Betsy Pollock and Nancy Rae Stone presented the grants, one offering as much as $25,000 to complete female-helmed projects. Deb Shoval scored $25,000 for her feature “Awol.” In addition, unspecified grants were handed out to Priscilla Anany for “Children of the Mountain” and Ralitza Petrova for “Godless” and Also Read: Secret Hollywood Meeting Addresses Crisis in Gender Disparity Documentary grants went to Frances McElroy’s “Black Ballerina” and Ashley York’s “So Help.

It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.

Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...

So here we are, smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer (and if you don’t get that little saying, try lying out on the sidewalk in 100-degree heat for 15 minutes or so, like Fido does, and see if a light bulb doesn’t go off). The dogs are often howling in movie theaters too—at times it seems as though August has replaced January in the hearts of moviegoers as the dumping ground for pictures not really worthy of our attention (or a serious investment in the marketing department). Movies like Pixels and Fantastic Four have their perverse fascination—just how bad can they possibly be? Both were greeted with reviews so scathing and unyielding in their acidity that studio heads can only pray nothing in October, November or December will be perceived as worse, and I have to admit a certain curiosity. But that...

The fall festival rush is upon us. Locarno is currently ramping up. Venice has released their line-up and Thom Powers and the Toronto International Film Festival team have dropped a bomb with a previously unannounced new feature from powerhouse docu-provocateur Michael Moore. It is truly a miracle that the production of a film such as Moore’s upcoming Where To Invade Next (see still above) managed to go completely undetected by the filmmaking community until it was literally announced to world premiere at one of the largest film festivals in the world. Programmed as a one of the key films in the Special Presentations section at Tiff, the film sees Moore telling “the Pentagon to ‘stand down’ — he will do the invading for America from now on.” Also announced to premiere at Tiff was Avi Lewis’ This Changes Everything, which has slowly been rising up this list, as well as...

“Good evening, hello, I have cancer,” the blank-faced and dry Tig Notaro exclaimed at her now-legendary Largo stand-up set, revisited in the new documentary Tig, premiering on Netflix this Friday, July 17. “How are you?” Notaro wasn’t sure whether she could make comedy out of tragedy, feeling that her battle with a rare digestive tract disease and the death of her mother wouldn’t exactly translate into side-splitting laughs. Then she got breast cancer, and the monumentally awful year of her life that was 2012 became an epic night of stand-up comedy that went viral overnight and flung her into newfound success.

Of course, as are with documentaries, it wasn’t all happy endings. Tig transitions naturally between moments of extreme devastation and true belly laughs, mining the comedian’s tragic backstory for some truly genuine moments of euphoria — both emotional and humorous — just as Notaro herself did at the Largo theater.

Sometimes words just aren't enough. That was the case for Tig Notaro, the comedian who almost three years ago tried to express how she felt after a tragic few months — which included a near-fatal infection, the sudden death of her mother, a breakup, and a breast-cancer diagnosis — in the form of a now-legendary stand-up set. Though hilarious and powerful, any listener of the recording from that night knew they would never be able to fully understand what Notaro was feeling. Tig, the new documentary by directors Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, starts on the night of that set and ends a year later, at a show marking its anniversary. In between, Notaro works on her comedy while she tries to come to terms with her newfound fame, attempts to get pregnant, and falls in love.After the film, the song "Words" by Sharon Van Etten plays over the credits.

The 2015 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival opens tonight with Tig, Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's documentary on Tig Notaro's landmark standup performance in 2012. The 19th annual Outfest Achievement Award has been presented to John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Rabbit Hole, Shortbus). We've got the trailer for the festival and we're collecting reviews, beginning with Sharon Shattuck's This Day Forward, Maureen Bradley's Two 4 One, Nils Bökamp's You & I, Jamie Babbit's Addicted to Fresno—and more. » - David Hudson...

The 2015 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival opens tonight with Tig, Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's documentary on Tig Notaro's landmark standup performance in 2012. The 19th annual Outfest Achievement Award has been presented to John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Rabbit Hole, Shortbus). We've got the trailer for the festival and we're collecting reviews, beginning with Sharon Shattuck's This Day Forward, Maureen Bradley's Two 4 One, Nils Bökamp's You & I, Jamie Babbit's Addicted to Fresno—and more. » - David Hudson...

It’s been a surprisingly interesting month of moving and shaking in terms of doc development. Just a month after making his first public funding pitch at Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, legendary doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman took to Kickstarter to help cover the remaining expenses for his 40th feature film In Jackson Heights (see the film’s first trailer below). Unrelentingly rigorous in his determination to capture the American institutional landscape on film, his latest continues down this thematic rabbit hole, taking on the immensely diverse New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights as his latest subject. According to the Kickstarter page, Wiseman is currently editing the 120 hours of rushes he shot with hopes of having the film ready for a fall festival premiere (my guess would be Tiff, where both National Gallery and At Berkeley made their North American debut), though he’s currently quite a ways away from his $75,000 goal.

Netflix and HBO haven’t just been trying to one-up each other when it comes to creating interesting, original TV shows, the competition has spread to putting out great documentaries as well. HBO may have aired acclaimed docs such as “Going Clear” and “Montage of Heck” earlier this year, but this summer Netflix has fired back with “What Happened Miss Simone?” as well as “Tig,” which will premiere in July. And judging from the official trailer for “Tig,” this is yet another documentary you will not want to miss. Read Moer: Sundance Review: Kristina's Goolsby & Ashley York's Documentary About Comedy Great Tig Notaro “Tig,” of course, is about comedian Tig Notaro, who’s been a celebrated stand-up comedian for over a decade now. She’s made numerous appearances as a guest on “Conan” and had a recurring role on “The Sarah Silverman Program.” She built quite the following for...

"It's so cliche - but it's like, you're alive, you might as well take chances." Netflix has debuted the official trailer for the powerful and inspiring documentary Tig, from filmmakers Kristina Goolsby & Ashley York, about the incredible story and heartfelt humor of Tig Notaro. Most people know the story, but Tig was diagnosed with cancer just after her mother died, and she had a tough time dealing with it but found her way through stand up comedy. Ethan caught the film at this year's Sundance, where it premiered, and wrote in his review that it "packs an emotional punch, and also shines a fascinating light on the life of a comedian, both professionally and personally." I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this film myself. Take a look. Here's the official trailer for Kristina Goolsby & Ashley York's documentary Tig, direct from Netflix: "Good evening. Hello. I have cancer." It was...

Tig Notaro's career was on the rise when a number of personal tragedies befell her in quick succession, forcing her to find humor in the face of death.

Not long after her mother died suddenly from a fall, the comedian was diagnosed with cancer in both breasts. Notaro, 44, recalls thinking at the time: "After everything that had happened, I have cancer?"

On July 17, Netflix's documentary Tig gives an inside look at what else what running through Notaro's mind during one of the most trying – and strangely amusing – periods of her life.

"As soon as I was diagnosed, everything came over me as funny,...

Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.

It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...

Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...

Park City. At the moment, it's good to be Tig Notaro.  Up at Sundance for the debut of the documentary "Tig," as well as a stint as host of last weekend's Sundance Awards, Notaro is coming off a year characterized by some of the most rapturous write-ups for any stand-up comic this side of Louis C.K.  Long beloved within the stand-up community, Notaro's success has spread into the mainstream and you'll be able to see a lot of her in 2015, including "Tig" (assuming it finds distribution) and her Showtime documentary "Knock, Knock, It's Tig Notaro." Oh and she's also newly engaged to her "In a World" co-star Stephanie Allynne, who co-starred in the well-received Sundance comedy "People, Places, Things." But "Tig" starts with darker times. Directed by Krista Goolsby and Ashley York, it chronicles Notaro's battle with C.diff, the death of her mother and her cancer diagnosis, a one-two-three...

“Tig” follows comedian Tig Notaro, who famously announced in front of a stunned audience back in 2012, “Good evening, I have cancer. Everyone having a good time? I have cancer.” In just 30 minutes, Notaro not only revealed her grave prognosis, she delivered the news with a disarming mixture of humor and vulnerability. The set became a media sensation and critical smash overnight and, as Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York's new documentary reveals, helped push the beloved comedian past a series of devastating setbacks. Having just recovered from a life-threatening infection and still in mourning over her mother’s sudden passing, Notaro's subsequent discovery of bilateral breast cancer left her no choice but to turn profound pain into an ongoing punch line, both on and off the stage. The result is an alternately poignant and playful window into a comedian's process turning her worst fears and anxieties into pure comic gold.

Comedian Tig Notaro had endured a life-threatening infection, the sudden death of her mother from cancer, a breakup and then a diagnosis of bilateral breast cancer, which required a double mastectomy. What could be more challenging than all of that? Being trailed by a documentary filmmaking crew filming you every step of the way. The resulting film, "Tig," co-directed by Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it received a standing ovation. Indiewire recently spoke to Notaro about her involvement in the film and the challenges of being the subject of a documentary. How did the project come about? Kristina [Goolsby], the director, [along with Ashley York] has been a friend of mine for almost 20 years. She had always wanted to do a documentary. She reached out to me maybe four months after my surgery and asked what I thought about that. I said "yes." It started two days later.

Tig Notaro is a pretty remarkable person. A long-serving and much-respected comic (the kind often described as a “comedian’s comedian”) she was, until relatively recently, known only among true stand-up nerds, aside from a handful of appearances on “The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Community” and “The Office.” But then, in 2012, Notaro suffered a series of terrible events in her personal life, culminating in an August show at L.A’s Largo that immediately passed into legend: her friend Louis C.K, who was present at the show, tweeted afterwards that “In 27 years doing this, I’ve seen a handful of truly great, masterful standup sets. One was Tig Notaro last night at Largo.” C.K. persuaded Notaro to release the audio from the night on his website as a comedy album, and the result, Live, sold 75,000 copies in a week. The documentary “Tig,” directed by Notaro’s friends Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York,...

In an ironic twist of fate, comedian Tig Notaro’s life started looking up from the moment she got onstage at the Largo comedy club in Los Angeles in October 2012 and announced, "Good evening, I have cancer.” Before that funny-poignant set — highly praised by Louis C.K. and other comics — Notaro, 43, had endured a life-threatening infection, the sudden death of her mother, a breakup, and a diagnosis of bilateral breast cancer, requiring a double mastectomy. Filmmakers Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York talked Notaro into letting them follow her around for a year as she got back on her feet and prepared for an anniversary stand-up show at the Largo in October 2014. Along the way, Notaro tried to have a baby on her own, found love, and perfected a joke about her breasts getting so sick of her referring to her flat-chestedness that they tried to kill her.

Chicago – This Thursday marks the beginning of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and yours truly will be in attendance to cover the fest for HollywoodChicago.com. Last year, the Park City, Utah event introduced the world to its 2014-defining sensations like “Whiplash” and “Boyhood”.

Those titles followed in the paths of indie landmarks such as “sex, lies and videotape,” “Clerks,” “Hoop Dreams,” “American Movie,” “Memento,” “Frozen River,” “Winter’s Bone,” and “Fruitvale Station,” among many others.

In pursuit of new favorite films for a new year, I’ve composed a relatively solid schedule so that I can devour as much diverse Sundance goodness as possible. Narratives, documentaries, white supremacists, nasty babies, Neil Hamburger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, stolen cop cars, and much, much more are all in play. But with hopes that everything I witness is the next “Boyhood”-like zeitgeist, I’ll be sure to report back here on what’s worth,...

The holidays are winding down and that means we at Ioncinema.com are gearing up for our annual pilgrimage to Park City where an A-list of documentaries is now set to premiere. Earlier this month Tabitha Jackson and the Sundance doc programming team let the cats out of the bag, unsurprisingly announcing much anticipated Us Doc Competition titles such as the Ross Brothers’ Western, Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction, Marc Silver’s 3 1/2 Minutes and Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe’s (T)Error, along with some surprises like Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel’s bizarro Kickstarted doc Finders Keepers (see trailer below). Having been produced by the fine folks behind The King of Kong and Undefeated, the film bears all the markings of its well regarded pedigree, yet appears to be of even odder ilk, following the story that unfolded when a severed human foot was discovered in a grill bought at a North Carolina auction.

Announcements for the lineup for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 22nd and February 1st, are starting to roll out. Watch this page for updates as more films and sections are revealed.

Premieres

Brooklyn (John Crowley, UK)

Digging for Fire (Joe Swanberg, USA)

Don Verdean (Jared Hess, USA)

End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt, USA)

Experimenter (Michael Almereyda, USA)

Grandma (Paul Weitz, USA)

I Am Michael (Justin Kelly, USA)

I'll See You In My Dreams (Brett Haley, USA)

Last Days in the Desert (Rodrigo Garcia, USA)

Lila & Eve (Charles Stone III, USA)

Mississipi Grind (Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden, USA)

Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, USA)

Seoul Searching (Benson Lee, USA/Korea)

Sleeping with Other People (Leslye Headland, USA)

Ten Thousand Saints (Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, USA)

True Story (Rupert Goold, USA)

A Walk in the Woods (Ken Kwapis, USA)

Zipper (Mora Stephens, USA)

Documentary Premieres

Beaver Trilogy Part IV (Brad Besser,...

The 2015 Sundance Film Festival has been slowly unveiling the films that will screen in Park City, Ut from January 22-February 1. We’ve already listed the midnight line up as well as the list of films in competition. Now, the Premieres have been revealed and the event is looking more and more promising. The entire slate include films directed by Noah Baumbach, James Ponsoldt, Paul Weitz, Jared Hess, Joe Swanberg, Charles Stone III and others. Here is the full list.

Premieres

A showcase of world premieres of some of the most highly anticipated narrative films of the coming year.

Brooklyn / United Kingdom (Director: John Crowley, Screenwriter: Nick Hornby, based on the book by Colm Tóibín) — 1950s Ireland: Eilis must confront a terrible dilemma — a heartbreaking choice between two men and two countries, between duty and true love. Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent.

Digging for Fire / U.

A section that throws the competitive spirit out the window, but actively becomes part of the year-end docu-talk, last year’s dozen minus one offerings included current Oscar front-runner Steve James’ Life Itself and the controversial Happy Valley from Amir Bar-Lev. 2015 will be a highly flamable one, courting controversy friendly titles from established docu auteurs in Amy Berg (Prophet’s Prey), Kirby Dick (The Hunting Ground) and Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief). Here are the docu thirteen docu (world) premieres:

Beaver Trilogy Part IV/ U.S.A. (Director: Brad Besser) — A chance meeting in a parking lot in 1979 between filmmaker Trent Harris and a young man from Beaver, Utah, inspired the creation of an underground film that is now known as Beaver Trilogy. But the film itself is only part of the story.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution/ U.S.A. (Director: Stanley...

Festival top brass have revealed a high-profile roster of out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres entries featuring many returning heroes, as well as a new Special Events section and panel participants including George Lucas.

Justin Kelly’s I Am Michael is likely to become a major talking point and stars James Franco and Zachary Quinto in the true tale of activist and Young Gay America co-founder Michael Glatze, who renounced his homosexuality and became a Christian pastor. The Exchange handles international rights.

James Ponsoldt’s David Foster Wallace film End Of The Tour (pictured, photo by Jakob Ihre) starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel makes the cut — Fortitude International is the international sales agent — as does the latest from the newly prolific Noah Baumbach, whose Mistress America stars his Frances Ha and Greenberg muse Greta Gerwig and arrives three months after the Toronto premiere of While We’re Young.

Sundance regulars Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden return with Mississippi Grind...

Kurt Cobain, Nina Simone and Tig Notaro are among the big names getting documentary treatment at this January's Sundance Film Festival. On Monday (December 8), Sundance announced 13 documentaries that will be premiering out of competition at the Festival, which runs from January 22 to February 1 in Park City. It's a group of films from some of documentary cinema's biggest names and, unsurprisingly, from some of Sundance's most frequent attendees. Sundance regular Liz Garbus ("The Farm: Angola, USA") is taking the previously vacant Us documentary Day One Film slot with "What Happened, Miss Simone?" The documentary looks singer and activist Nina Simone was recently acquired by Netflix, which had "Mitt" in an out-of-competition slot at last year's Festival. Also coming from a Sundance favorite and also with TV distribution already in place is HBO's "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," an authorized biopic of the Nirvana frontman that features Frances Bean Cobain as an...

Festival top brass have revealed a high-profile roster of out-of-competition Premieres and Documentary Premieres entries featuring many returning heroes, as well as a new Special Events section and participants on two panels including George Lucas.

James Ponsoldt’s David Foster Wallace film End Of The Tour starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel makes the cut, as does the latest from the newly prolific Noah Baumbach, whose Mistress America stars his Frances Ha and Greenberg muse Greta Gerwig and arrives three months after the Toronto premiere of While We’re Young.

Sundance regulars Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden return with Mississippi Grind starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn and Sienna Miller, while Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman introduce the New York Tompkins Square Park Riot drama Ten Thousand Saints starring the in-demand Ethan Hawke and Emily Mortimer.

Joe Swanberg brings Digging For Fire with Rosemarie Dewitt, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick.

Peter Sarsgaard, [link...

Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...

They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while development and filming is underway. To chart this course with a little more precision, I’m launching Ioncinema.com’s latest feature, What’s Up Doc?, our monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated films, a sort of hitlist and/or snapshot of the most alluring, the most promising documentary film projects from the established documentarian guard, the new crop of future voices or the fiction filmmakers who on occasion dip their toes in the form. Curated by me, Jordan M. Smith, you’ll find docu items that are in their beginning stages to being moments away from their film festival berth. Like any such list, we can expect film items to fluctuate in ranking, with the cut-off being publicly items — such recent examples include Laura Poitras’s white hot Edward Snowden project,...