News

The 18th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced its full line-up of 301 films from 70 countries with 95 world premieres and 42 international premieres.

Running Oct 3-12, the festival will open with the world premiere of Bhutanese film Vara: A Blessing, directed by Buddhist monk Khyentse Norbu, who formerly served as technical advisor to Bernardo Bertolucci on Little Buddha.

Biff will close with the world premiere of Korean film The Dinner, directed by Kim Dong-hyun whose Hello, Stranger (2007) won Asian Cinema Fund (Acf) post-production support and won the 12th Biff’s Netpac Award.

New Market Incentive

The Asian Film Market is launching new incentives for buyers and sellers participating from this year.

Market head Jay Jeon said: “With an aim to being more productive and bring more Asia-focused development in future, we are going to offer indirect support with flight and accommodations to buyers who pick up films at the Asian Film Market.

“We’ll be giving...

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Dfw-area filmmaker David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) will team up with Robert Redford for the crime movie The Old Man and the Gun, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Old Man and the Gun, based on a 2003 article in The New Yorker by David Grann, tells the true story of lifelong bank robber Forrest Tucker, who died in 2005.On Saturday night, Austin-based filmmaker Yen Tan won the Texas Grand Jury Prize at this year's Dallas International Film Festival for his movie Pit Stop (Debbie's review). Fellow Austin-based filmmaker and Ut lecturer Kat Candler also won a Diff grand jury prize for her short Black Metal. Black Metal and Pit Stop both premiered at Sundance this year, were both produced by Austinite Kelly Williams and both have local actor Jonny Mars in the cast. Diff also recognized the Austin-shot film Good Night...

After several years in the making, Sean Gallagher's Austin-shot film Good Night debuted at SXSW -- find out more about the journey from Gallagher in Elizabeth's interview. The good news is that since this narrative provides glimpses of the past, the filmmaker was able to capture the main characters over a time span that could mirror the fictional narrative.

Good Night revolves around a young twentysomething couple, Leigh (Adriene Mishler) and Winston (Jonny Mars) Rockwall, as they gather with their closest friends to celebrate Leigh's twenty-ninth birthday. The guests enjoy casual conversation as well as controversial and current topics as they enjoy their dinner, until Leigh drops a bomb having a profound effect on them all.  The guests, including Leigh's best friend Alice (Samantha Thomson), all react differently as they process the news. Through voice-overs and flashbacks we learn how each person became connected to Leigh.

Mishler is sweetly exquisite as Leigh,...

Sean Gallagher's full-length feature directing debut, Good Night, is premiering at SXSW on Monday, March 11 at the Rollins Theatre (screening info). This intimate drama depicts a dinner party in which the young hostess reveals some difficult news to her friends. The cast includes local actors Adriene Mishler, Jonny Mars, Chris Doubek and sometimes-Austinite Alex Karpovsky, as well as University of Texas alum Todd Berger.

Gallagher lives in Austin, and not only directed this film (which he shot here), but wrote and produced it as well. He's written and directed two shorts as well, Fuck and Out of Water. During his time at Ut, he was the first recipient of the Samuel Fuller Award for Cinematic Intransigence.

He answered a few questions (via email) about his new film, improvisation and inspirations.

Slackerwood: What was the filmmaking process like for Good Night? How long were you working on it (conception to...

In this week's in-production column, indieWIRE takes a look at a film from a new crop of Austin filmmakers, Sean Gallagher's "Good Night," which stars Jonny Mars ("Wuss," "The Happy Poet") and Alex Karpovsky ("Tiny Furniture"). Also in this week's column, a film about the current crisis of acoustic guitars, a contemporary update of "Aladdin" and "Pandora's Box," the story of one of Detroit's oldest projects, and a failed Kickstarter ...