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A profound and poetic passage and a playful Fitzcarraldo allusion aside, Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia is a shockingly bad picture. Omnibus flicks are only as good as their best passages and as bad as their worst. While the film, made collectively by several talented filmmakers working under the banner of the Borscht Corporation, doesn’t reach a Movie 43-level of obnoxiousness, it comes close in a few sections. Its inclusion in Sundance’s Next category represents a troubling lack of judgment. The category was originally meant for lower-budget indies and emerging talent. Unfortunately, someone’s potentially stunning little indie didn’t make the cut and rather this over-bloated picture featuring several Sundance alumni was accepted instead. At my screening, the film inspired a few more walkouts than Flying Lotus’ nearly pornographic Kuso did last year. Kuso, however, worked while Omniboat was met with much silence when shown to a sober audience at 12:30 pm.

Comprising a portion of our top 50 films of last year, Sundance Film Festival has proven to yield the first genuine look at what the year in cinema will bring. We’ll be heading back to Park City this week, but before we do, it’s time to highlight the films we’re most looking forward to, including documentaries and narrative features from all around the world.

While much of the joy found in the festival comes from surprises throughout the 11 days, below one will find our 20 most-anticipated titles. Check out our picks and for updates straight from the festival, make sure to follow us on Twitter, and stay tuned to all of our coverage here.

20. The Truffle Hunters (Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw)

There will be no shortage of timely, issue-driven documentaries at Sundance Film Festival, as is the case each year, and we’re looking forward to seeing a...

The Spirit Series (directed by Miami filmmaker Brett Potter) is an ongoing anthology of films about ghosts and glimmers of the afterlife. In the first chapter, “Spirit #1” Samantha met a man last night, but can’t remember what he looks like. Give it a spin embedded at the top of the article! Are you a […]

The post Check Out The Spirit Series First Episode, “Spirit #1” appeared first on Dread Central.

Zombies, werewolves, and serial killing social media stars will descend upon Miami this August for the third annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival. Taking place August 11th–17th, the Florida film fest's first wave of programming includes Another Wolfcop, Tragedy Girls, It Stains the Sands Red, Better Watch Out, and more.

Press Release: Miami, Fl – Popcorn Frights Film Festival, Florida’s largest and most respected genre film event, announces its first wave of programming for its third annual celebration of genre-twisting cinema, occurring August 11 through 17, 2017, at Miami's landmark O Cinema Wynwood theater.

"We're thrilled to bring the best in horror and genre filmmaking to South Florida audiences for our third annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival. We scoured the globe for the most audacious and spine-tingling films and this first wave selection just gives a small taste of all the exciting things to come,” said Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman, Co-Founders & Co-Directors of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.

The New Online Work (N.O.W.) section of the Tribeca Film Festival celebrates a selection of 10 independent filmmakers and their new online creative content. This year’s festival played home to the premiere of the short form series “The Midnight Service,” which debuted last week.

Read More: ‘The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson’ Review: A Stonewall Hero Is Mourned In Fascinating Detective Story — Tribeca 2017 Review

The creators of the series, Dean Colin Marcial and Brett Potter, utilize documentary visual language to reinforce the authenticity of the stories. Each episode varies from “real-life anomalies, notorious criminals, occult pop culture, and first-hand accounts of macabre.”

Marcial and Potter are no strangers to the realm of the indie filmmaking. Marcial was named a 2015 Made in NY Fellow by the New York City Mayor’s Office and is a recipient of the 2017 Tribeca All Access Grant. Potter co-founded production services company...

The Tribeca Film Festival announced programming today for its N.O.W. (New Online Works) section, an inspired array of established and emerging creators who are pushing the boundaries of online storytelling.

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Set to Open With ‘Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Premiere Event at Radio City Music Hall

Top-lining the section is the premiere of “Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock,” a documentary from the Oscar-nominated team of Josh Fox and James Spione and Executive Producer Shailene Woodley. The project is a collaboration with indigenous filmmaker Myron Dewey about the Native-led resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Eli Roth’s Crypt TV will premiere “Monster Madness,” a series of several character shorts; and Op-Docs, The New York Times’ award-winning forum for short, opinionated documentaries, will screen three films at the Festival.

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Lineup: New Films From Alex Gibney, Azazel Jacobs and Laurie Simmons...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2015 discoveries”.

Brett Potter: Koji Shirashi – His documentary horror films are these sprawling, epic mysteries that turn up in insane ways. Koji if you’re reading this, I want to remake Shirome in the United States!!! Hgtv – I can kill an entire Sunday watching Fixer Upper, House Hunters and Love it or List it. How do I produce one of these shows? How do I make money producing reality TV, and flipping real estate at the same time??? Luxuria Music Radio – I am really into bossa nova, exotica and space-age lounge music. This radio station has changed my life. Put it on during a work day and you’ll feel better. Apoquel – I have a dog named Bibi that has suffered from horrible and debilitating allergies her entire life. This year, a wonder drug named Apoquel was introduced to the market and...

The premiere post-tiff destination (September 20-25th) in the film community and a major leg up for narrative and non-fiction films in development, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced a whopping 140 projects selected for the Project Forum at the upcoming Ifp Independent Film Week. Made up of several sections (Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries), we find latest updates from the likes of docu-helmers Doug Block (112 Weddings) and Lana Wilson (After Tiller), and among the narrative items we find headliners in Andrew Haigh (coming off the well received 45 Years), Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls and Madame Bovary), Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal (Stranger Things) and new faces in Sundance’s large family in Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again) and Olivia Newman (First Match). Here...

Earlier this week, we gave you details on first wave of special experiences and events taking place at the 2015 Stanley Film Festival. We now have details on their impressive slate of features, short films, and additional special events, including screenings of The Final Girls, Deathgasm, Stung, The Invitation, and We Are Still Here.

We're teaming up with the festival for live coverage and special opportunities for Daily Dead readers, so be sure to check back all month for contests, features, and more.

"April 2, 2014 (Denver, Co) - The Stanley Film Festival (Sff) produced by the Denver Film Society (Dfs) and presented by Chiller, announced today its Closing Night film, Festival lineup and the 2015 Master of Horror. The Festival will close out with The Final Girls. The film, directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, is the story of a young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s,...

As Borscht 9 — Miami’s delirious cinematic fete comprising afternoons spent in the middle of the ocean, machete fencing and bike rides to the multiverse — hits its midpoint, Borscht Corporation releases to Filmmaker one of its recent short films, Sea Devil. Sea Devil, directed by by Dean C. Marcial and Brett Potter of Calavera Films, was screened in work-in-progress form at Borscht 8 and now it’s having its online premiere here on the site. Winner of the Bronze Audience Award at Fantasia 2014, Sea Devil is the story of a fisherman smuggling Cuban immigrants into Miami, a mysterious stranger […]...

As Borscht 9 — Miami’s delirious cinematic fete comprising afternoons spent in the middle of the ocean, machete fencing and bike rides to the multiverse — hits its midpoint, Borscht Corporation releases to Filmmaker one of its recent short films, Sea Devil. Sea Devil, directed by by Dean C. Marcial and Brett Potter of Calavera Films, was screened in work-in-progress form at Borscht 8 and now it’s having its online premiere here on the site. Winner of the Bronze Audience Award at Fantasia 2014, Sea Devil is the story of a fisherman smuggling Cuban immigrants into Miami, a mysterious stranger […]...

This past Wednesday, August 6th, saw the close of the 18th edition of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival; and now that the dust has settled, we have the full list of this year's award winners plus the Fest's dates for 2015.

From the Press Release:

Returning to its home at Concordia University after the location’s massive 2013 renovations, the acclaimed Fantasia International Film Festival, North America’s longest-running genre film fest, benefited from having three theaters in which to screen its record 160+ films.

Among the numerous highlights that took place during the three-week festival were the crowd-pleasing, revelatory world premieres of Leo Gabriadze’s Cybernatural (review here), Sarah Adina Smith’s The Midnight Swim, and Bennett Jones’ I Am A Knife With Legs. Also of note were massively successful screenings of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Lee Su-jin’s Han Gong-ju, Keishi Otomo’s Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Inferno,...

Both Kings and Jacks are wild this summer as Screen Daily reports that filming on King Jack is set to begin this summer. Directed by two time SXSW short filmmaker Felix Thompson and produced along with Buffalo Picture House’s Gabrielle Nadig and Dominic Buchanan of Gimme the Loot fame (a rare SXSW to Un Certain Regard selection), the project is a note-worthy trade item in our books because Nadig was among the select few (same time last year actually) to be named as a Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab fellow (other producers with project include still in development items from Brett Potter (producer on Andrew Renzi’s The Fort) and Chris Ohlson (producer for Zellner Bros.’ Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter). Whitewater’s Rick Rosenthal, Bert Kern and Nick Morton are exec producing, and so are Stink’s Daniel Bergmann and Martin Forbes. Corey Deckler co-produces.

Gist: Starring Christian Madsen,...

Ashley King didn't have to search far for inspiration to play middle-school teacher Ms. Peterson, an endearingly spacey earth mother whose classroom is full of bullies, problem children, and at least one little girl who may be the spawn of Satan. King—who saw the casting notice for the short Nyu student film "Death and the Blue-Eyed Boy" on BackStage.com—is the daughter of two educators, so she's no stranger to the job's demands. Fittingly, in her first-ever stage role, in sixth grade, she played a teacher. This time the Pittsburgh native channeled a former art teacher."She was kind of the last of the hippies at our school," says King. "She was always just a little bit off, always looking at the wrong side of the room when there was something going on right behind her shoulder." The nonunion actor quickly adds that the teacher was "a lovely woman,...