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An Interview with the makers of Infinity Baby

2017: The Weinstein’s, Toback’s, Spacey’s, C.K’s, Affleck’s, and Hoffman’s of the film world have, for the first time, been ousted from their Hollywood havens and floated down an assembly line into the best short-term rehab facilities movie money can buy.

The effect is all encompassing, not just for filmmakers & entertainers, but for politicians (George H.W Bush, Al Franken), and the civilians who consume them, too. The influence is so sweeping that, come the 40th Denver Film Festival, a Toback story derailed an interview organized between the cast and crew of the feature film Infinity Baby, that was held in a small corner of the city’s Civic Center.

In attendance: Infinity Baby’s director Bob Byington (7 Chinese Brothers, Harmony & Me), its writer Onur Tukel (Catfight, The Misogynists), and its star Trieste Kelly Dunn (Banshee,...

The 2016 presidential election was a surreal period, with a November 8 outcome that unfolded with the intensity of a horror movie — you know, the kind where the monster that supposedly died a few minutes earlier springs back to life to launch a whole new franchise. Of course, some members of the electorate felt differently. Depending on your point of view, the Trump victory was either a traumatizing jolt or a happy ending, and as the one year anniversary looms we’ve got movies that wrestle with both sides of the equation.

One them is a sequel. In 2008, film distribution executive Jeff Deutchman launched the crowdsourced “11/4/08,” gathering footage from countless filmmakers who captured the highlights of a historic voting day. The result was a rah-rah celebration of the Obama victory on a personal scale, with intimate bonding scenes at voting stations and giddy faces generating a kind of utopian fever. In retrospect,...

November 8, 2016 may be a day that will live in infamy for many. For Onur Tukel, it was inspiration for his next film. The indie provocateur behind “Catfight,” “Applesauce” and “Summer of Blood” decided to explore how a Trump supporter experienced the fateful night. This tongue-in-cheek exploration of a divided America digs deep into the night’s mass existential crisis, finding disquieting results. Dylan Baker (“The Americans”) leads the cast with a gleefully deranged performance, altnerately provoking and pontificating throughout the film’s wild first teaser trailer.

Read More:‘Catfight’ Exclusive Clip: Anne Heche and Sandra Oh Get Into an Epic Brawl in Onur Tukel’s New Satire

Per the official synopsis: “In a single, fully-stocked hotel room on the night of the 2016 general election, two Trump supporters celebrate the unexpected results. As the night rages on, an ensemble of characters venture in and out of the room. Some match the...

Caveh Zahedi: "I think honesty is the most subversive thing you can do in this world." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

An episode spoofing Spike Jonze and Viceland with Emmy Harrington as "Slut Machine" from Caveh Zahedi's spine-chilling The Show About The Show was a highlight of this year's Tribeca Film Festival N.O.W. Showcase.

Person to Person director Dustin Guy Defa (in Matías Piñeiro's Hermia & Helena), Eléonore Hendricks (Peter Brunner's To the Night with Caleb Landry Jones), Alex Karpovsky (Jess Bond's Rosy with Stacy Martin), Kentucker Audley (Celia Rowlson-Hall's Ma and Charles Poekel's Christmas, Again), Sam Stillman, editor Peter Rinaldi, Applesauce director Onur Tukel and his cinematographer Jason Banker, Amanda Field, and even IndieWire's Eric Kohn have been seduced by the creator to play themselves or others.

"I feel that way about all my films, not just this one. I think they're all a perfect expression of me.

Sandra Oh and Anne Heche beat the ever-loving crap out of each other in Onur Tukel's latest indie offering...

If you’ve only heard the briefest of things about Catfight, you’d be forgiven for imagining a sort of female version of The Fast Show’s ‘Long Big Punch Up’ and, to be fair, that wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

Turkish-American indie filmmaker Onur Tukel is back in the spotlight with this new outing, leaning into satire and away from his slightly more uncomfortable forays into horror-comedy.

While some of the director’s previous efforts, like Applesauce and Summer Of Blood, drew some extremely positive reviews, general audiences haven’t responded in kind so far, and he doesn’t make it easy for the mainstream to embrace him with Catfight, either. And you know what? Good. I may not have personally enjoyed a lot of Onur Tukel’s films,...

Recently named one of our favorite films of 2016 without distribution, we said, “Who knew that one of the year’s most potent representations of America’s addiction to abrasive conflict would be Anne Heche and Sandra Oh beating each other to a pulp? Onur Tukel’s Catfight is an unabashedly silly and political film, but it’s also a funny one, with its two lead actresses literally and figuratively hurling themselves into their roles.”

Thankfully it’s taken little time for the film to acquire distribution and it’ll arrive sooner than expected, in early March, and the first trailer has now landed. In the film, Heche and Oh play former college friends who bump into each other years later on the opposite sides of society — one is a struggling artist, while the other is married to a filthy rich Wall Street worker — and the tensions between them eventually boil over into a giant brawl.

“Catfight” is a great example of truth in advertising: In writer-director Onur Tukel’s nutty satire, Anne Heche and Sandra Oh beat the shit out of each other. That much should be obvious from a passing familiarity with the premise, but it’s less the plot of the movie than its motif. Heche and Oh don’t just beat the shit out of each other; they do it on three separate occasions, for minutes on end, and each blow lands with an alarming crunch.

Although the filmmaking has a ragged quality that doesn’t always hit its mark, the two brawling women certainly do. No matter its flaws, Tukel’s witty inversion of the buddy movie formula — set in an embellished world riddled by wartime dysfunction — has some legitimate ideas about the way feuds can last so long that neither side remembers what they’re fighting over. Imagine “Trading Places...

The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off this week, and with it, the rest of a very busy fall festival season. In preparation for the Canadian festival, we’ll be rolling out a series of previews to point you in the direction of all the movies you have to see (or at least, all the movies you have to start anticipating right now). Next up, a batch of new features we’ve yet to see…and can’t wait to check out in the coming days.

“The Promise”

Oscar-winning director Terry George has been Mia from the big screen since 2011’s “Stand Off” (a little-seen Brendan Fraser vehicle that’s hardly worth mentioning) and the awards conversation since 2004’s “Hotel Rwanda” (though his subsequent film, the 2007 Mark Ruffalo-starring “Reservation Road” got a little love), but he seems poised to be back in a big way, thanks to a sweeping...

In the middle of summer, when moviegoing options are slim, it’s hard to visualize the sheer scope of films that will screen this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival. No single film commands all the buzz, nor can one lineup, and so the first big announcement — featuring the Galas and Special Presentations — can only begin to provide some insight into the titles worthy of anticipation.

Still, there’s a lot to dig through: Oscar hopefuls looking to gain momentum (“The Birth of a Nation,” “Loving” and more detailed here); big-budget studio efforts hoping to earn some upscale cred (Peter Berg’s “Deepwater Horizon,” Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi “Arrival”); veteran filmmakers still pursuing the kind of topics that put them on the map (Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” Mira Nair’s “Queen of Katwe”).

Beyond these obvious standouts, however, several titles from these programs hold a lot of potential for...

Employing an outsider to disarm subjects deep in Bubba Texas, Booger Red turns to writer/director/actor/provocateur Onur Tukel as its conduit into this world, asking the absurd questions at the heart of a scandal that involves swingers, foster parents and a “sex kindergarten.” Inspired by Michael Hall’s 2009 Texas Monthly article, director Berndt Mader (Five Time Champion) constructs his own documentary/narrative hybrid with Tukel as a reporter named Onur Tukel (although not as himself) in his most restrained role yet.

Playing an Austin-based investigate reporter, he’s dispatched to the small town of Mineola, Texas where the neighborhood swinger’s club is conveniently located across from the town’s newspaper. It’s here where the mysterious Booger Red apparently brought kids he trained in his “sex kindergarten” to perform — an allegation made by a profiteering set of foster parents.

Rather curiously, Mader has insisted many real players...

Simon Brew Rob Leane Kirsten Howard Apr 20, 2017

Josh Brolin came out of left field to snag the role of Cable in Deadpool 2, and he's already hard at work...

While us Marvel fans sat waiting for the inevitable appearance of Josh Brolin as big bad Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (parts one or two), it was a bit of a shock to find out he'd be hopping over to another Marvel propery (albeit on the 20th Century Fox lot) as mutant comrade Cable in the Ryan Reynolds-starring Deadpool 2, especially since he was never publicly anywhere near the shortlist for the role.

See related Doctor Who: Smile geeky spots and Easter eggs

But now, Brolin is officially Cable and he's already preparing for the role in earnest, as we discovered from his recent Instagram post:

You know, just meditating. #deadpool2 #clostraphobiarocks #ryanreyondsismybitch #umguys

A post shared by Josh Brolin...

A new poster has surfaced for "Catfight," an action-comedy from writer-director Onur Tukel ("Applesauce") thats has a very intriguing ensemble of Alicia Silverstone, Anne Heche and Sandra Oh.  Read More: Watch: Mysterious Body Parts are Being Sent to Onur Tukel in 'Applesauce' Trailer The black comedy turns two college friends against each other when they meet again at different walks of life years down the road. Veronica (Sandra Oh) schmoozes with the business elite and enjoys a fine Bordeaux. Ashley (Anne Heche) is an artist struggling to pay the next month's rent and living with her lover Sally (Alicia Silverstone). The two clearly don't get along anymore and if the title is any indication, "Catfight" is what happens when things get dark and (hilariously) violent.  Check out the poster above. ...

Coming out on Digital and VOD today from Dark Sky Films is Applesauce, the new movie from Onur Tukel (Summer of Blood, House of Pancakes). For our latest Q&A feature, we caught up with the writer/director/star to discuss grounding his noir nightmare in reality, working with Dylan Baker, and much more.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Onur. How and when did you come up with the story for Applesauce?

Onur Tukel: In 2014, I decided to make a few genre films. They're more profitable and it's easier to find an audience. Plus, I happen to love trash, so it wasn't hard to convince myself. So I made a vampire film called Summer of Blood. A company bought it and said they'd give me money for another genre movie. So I got to work on Applesauce in the summer of 2014. The catalyst...

A clip from Micheal Bafaro's Wrecker reminds us that road rage can be deadly. Also in this round-up: a new trailer for the film Applesauce and a call for entries to the Silver Scream Fest, featuring the 35th anniversary screening of An American Werewolf in London.

Wrecker: "Best friends Emily and Lesley go on a road trip to the desert. When Emily decides to get off the highway and take a “short cut,” they become the target of a relentless and psychotic trucker who forces them to play a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Directed By: Micheal Bafaro. Story By: Evan Tylor and Micheal Bafaro. Screenplay By: Micheal Bafaro. Cast: Anna Hutchison and Drea Whitburn."

Distributed by XLrator Media, Wrecker hits theaters, VOD, and iTunes on November 6th.

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Applesauce: Press Release: "In rising filmmaker Onur Tukel's latest provocative comedy-drama Applesauce, a married man is...

Read More: Tribeca Review: New York Comedy is Rarely More Scathing Than Onur Tukel's 'Applesauce' A married man is severely tested after a string of twisted, mysterious and frightening events in rising filmmaker Onur Tukel's latest dark comedy. "Applesauce." The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and co-stars Max Casella, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Dylan Baker, Jennifer Prediger and Karl Jacob. The official film synopsis reads: "Every Tuesday night, radio talk show host Stevie Bricks invites his listeners to call in and share 'the worst thing they've ever done.' Tonight, Ron Welz (Tukel) is ready to share his story. But soon after he confesses on the air, someone starts sending him severed body parts. Ron becomes paranoid, terrified. His life begins to unravel. His marriage begins to fall apart. He has no idea who's tormenting him. Is it his insolent high school student? Is it his best friend?...

Without spoiling things by revealing too much of the plot, we can tell you that Onur Tukel's latest film, "Applesauce" is a black comedy about infidelity, post-9/11 paranoia and severed body parts. Since the film premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, it's been making its rounds on the film festival circuit. In his review out of Tribeca, Eric Kohn wrote "Everyone and everything in 'Applesauce' is a comic time bomb prone to explode at any moment." Indiewire recently chatted with Tukel, who wrote, directed and acted in the film, at the BendFilm Festival in Bend, Oregon where "Applesauce" was screening. The audience responded appropriately with laughs -- and gasps. We continued our conversation recently by e-mail. Read More: Here's How These Two Female Filmmakers Made Their First Features Where did the inspiration for the film come from? It was inspired by a tragic event that happened...

The end of days is nigh in the new trailer for Fire City: End of Days, directed by Tom Woodruff Jr. Also: new programming announcements from the 2015 Mile High Horror Film Festival, release details for Aquarius Season 1 and zombie web comic When It's Over.

Fire City: End of Days: Press Release: "Burbank, CA - Academy Award Winning Creature and Character Effects Designer Tom Woodruff Jr. makes his highly-anticipated directorial debut with Fire City: End of Days, hitting DVD and Digital October 6 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

Set in a world where demons live among us, this exhilarating vitrine of effects and action sees a hard-boiled demon named Vine confronted with the ultimate choice between the salvation of his own kind and the life of an innocent human girl. Tobias Jelinek (Hocus Pocus), Danielle Chuchran (Saga: Curse of the Shadow), Glee’s Harry Shum Jr, and Kristin Minter (TVs E.R) star.

Filmmaker‘s Taylor Hess recently attended and reported on the U.S. in Progress series at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. While there, she spoke to a number of female directors and producers. Below, her conversation with Applesauce producer Melodie Sisk. Filmmaker: What was your timeline on Applesauce? Sisk: Applesauce moved so fast! We essentially had no real pre-production and had to jump right in. This made our schedule erratic, we’d shoot a few days at a time, jumping around between holidays, and then, just like that, we premiered at Tribeca exactly five months to the date of our first day of shooting. It […]...

Filmmaker‘s Taylor Hess recently attended and reported on the U.S. in Progress series at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. While there, she spoke to a number of female directors and producers. Below, her conversation with Applesauce producer Melodie Sisk. Filmmaker: What was your timeline on Applesauce? Sisk: Applesauce moved so fast! We essentially had no real pre-production and had to jump right in. This made our schedule erratic, we’d shoot a few days at a time, jumping around between holidays, and then, just like that, we premiered at Tribeca exactly five months to the date of our first day of shooting. It […]...

Ceff takes place in the heart of Paris in June. The first ever connection in Paris between French cinema and American cinema takes place during a glorious week of screenings and special events dedicated entirely to the public.

The opportunity to bring together a host of filmmakers, producers, distributors, journalists, academics, partners, around a big party every night at the top of Publicis where “Le Drugstore” made such a big splash during the 70s is also an event which reinvigorates what has become a touristic and consumer oriented Champs Elysees. Distinguished guests, film teams, young directors add up to a celebration of that most popular of all culture today, the movies.

The fourth edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival was presided by the actress Émilie Dequenne and actor Jeremy Irons, and it had more than 22, 000 attendees, accompanied all week by bright sunshine.

3 Audience Prizes were given during the closing ceremony which took place on Tuesday night at the Publicis Cinema.

• The Audience Prize for an Independent American Feature Lenght Film, given by Jeremy Irons, was awarded to the film "The Road Within" by Gren Wells, the story of a young man with Tourette’s Syndrome who embarks on a road trip. Its international sales agent is Annapurna and its U.S. distributor is WellGo.

• The Audience Prize for a French Short Film given by Émilie Dequenne and Céline Nallet, Gerenal Director of HD1 channel, was awarded to "J’aurais pas dû mettre mes Clarks" by Marie Caldera. The film will be screened on HD1.

• The Audience Prize for an American Short Film given by actress Zoë Felix and Éric Legendre from Variety was awarded to "Scheherazade" by Mehrnoush Aliaghaei.

The Student Jury Prize, given by Adrien Fallu, the marketing and communication director of TCM , the object of which is to present classics of the cinema to young adults, was given to "Shoot the Moon," by Alan Parker, presented in the section "TCM Cinéma Essentials."

The Festival was created by the Producer, Distributor and Exhibitor Sophie Dulac. More than 100 films were screened during the festival showcasing the diversity of French and American cinema in six cinemas on the most prestigious avenue in the world: The Balzac, the Gaumont Champs-Élysées, the Lincoln, the Publicis cinema, Ugc George V and MK2 Grand Palais.

Prestigious Guests This Year at the Festival:

• William Friedkin met with the public for an amazing Q&A at the end of the screening of the restored director’s cut version of "Sorcerer."

• Alan Parker, who confirmed his decision not to shoot anymore, gave a remarkable masterclass on the cult movies that have made him famous from "Fame" to "Bugsy Malone" and "Midgnight Express."

• Josh and Benny Safdie, emblematic directors of today’s New York cinema, introduced their shorts and feature movies, and premiered their new film "Heaven Knows What."

• Euzhan Palcy, director of "Sugar Cane Alley" and "A Dry White Season" gave a brilliant masterclass, sharing how she became the voice of Black People at a time when nobody wanted to hear.

• Vilmos Zsigmond, Oscar-winning director of photography who has worked with the greatest directors from Spielberg and Cimino to Brian de Palma, introduced the restored version of "The Rose" by Mark Rydell,

• Jeremy Irons, passionate cinephile who was present the screenings all week and who also gave a masterclass.

Professional Program in Constant Progression

• More than 50 distributors, producers, and international sales agents came from all over the world to discover six independent American films, works in progress, of which "Diverge" by James Morrisson, was awarded great help with several post-production services necessary to complete the film.

• The growing success of the second edition of the Paris Coproduction Village, organized in collaboration with Les Arcs European Film Festival took place from 10th to 12th June with a Brazilian focus and delighted the professionals who came from many different countries.

During the festival, numerous American directors in competition came from the U.S. to debate with audiences after the screenings: Hannah Fidell for "6 years," Onur Tukel for "Applesauce," Matthew Heineman for "Cartel Land," Andrew Renzi for "Franny," Sebastian Silva for "Nasty Baby," Gren Wells and his producer Brent Emmery for "The Road Within," Rachel Wolther producer of "Stinking Heaven" and Jenner Furst, producer of "Welcome to Leith," that's without mentioning all the French and American shorts films, premieres, etc…

All the best moments, interviews with distinguished guests, directors, jurors, and red carpets are available thanks to the Festival Web TV on:

https://www.youtube.com/user/CEfilmfestival/

www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com

https://www.facebook.com/champselyseesfilmfestival...

Read More: The 2015 Indiewire Tribeca Bible Another film festival, another crop of great movies without a home. Fortunately, by the end of this year's Tribeca Film Festival, at least seven movies finalized major distribution deals. The list includes "Sworn Virgin," the transgender tale that won the festival's Nora Ephron prize, and acclaimed documentary "Crocodile Gennadiy," which sold to The Orchard. Other productive buyers at this year's festival included A24 ("Mojave," "The Adderall Diaries"), Saban Films ("Backtrack") and IFC Midnight ("Stung"). However, there are many other highlights from the 2015 lineup that have yet to announce any kind of life beyond it. Here are some of the best movies from this year's festival that deserve a home. "Applesauce""This is the reason our culture is in the shitter," says writer-director-star Onur Tukel in his very funny New York comedy "Applesauce," and...

Read More: Tribeca: Watch Indiewire Talk to Ethan Hawke, Taylor Schilling, Olivia Wilde and More at the Apple Store "This is the reason our culture is in the shitter," says writer-director-star Onur Tukel in his very funny New York comedy "Applesauce," and that may as well be the mantra of the movie. The Turkish-American filmmaker is no stranger to acerbic satire, having most recently poked fun at urban struggles with the outrageous vampire comedy "Summer of Blood." The riotous approach still has teeth in "Applesauce," and while they don't dig quite as deep, Tukel's script about a quartet of self-involved New Yorkers still has plenty of bite. With a trimmer beard and a slightly less offensive demeanor than his bottom-feeder character in "Summer of Blood," Tukel's Ron Welz lives a somewhat more stable life, but that doesn't last long. As the movie begins, the garrulous high school teacher calls into...

Onur Tukel’s Summer of Blood was a hit of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, a work that saw the Brooklyn filmmaker venture from the relationship comedy drama of his previous pictures towards a sly, anarchic genre tale — in this case, a vampire story. Far from a generic riff on the genre, it contained all of Tukel’s typical emotional queasiness and edgy humor while adding quite a bit of the red stuff. With Applesauce, his latest, Dylan Baker plays the role of a man coaxed into recounting a story from his past on a radio show one day. He probably […]...

Onur Tukel’s Summer of Blood was a hit of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, a work that saw the Brooklyn filmmaker venture from the relationship comedy drama of his previous pictures towards a sly, anarchic genre tale — in this case, a vampire story. Far from a generic riff on the genre, it contained all of Tukel’s typical emotional queasiness and edgy humor while adding quite a bit of the red stuff. With Applesauce, his latest, Dylan Baker plays the role of a man coaxed into recounting a story from his past on a radio show one day. He probably […]...

If you’ve seen last year’s nutty little Brooklyn horror-comedy Summer of Blood, or any of its post-film Q&As, you might know writer-director-actor Onur Tukel as the loquacious type. Surprise, his tendency to essay characters which go on and on, possibly to their own detriment, is on full display in the first clip from his new…

The post Tribeca 2015 Clip: Summer of Blood Director’s Applesauce appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Andrew Renzi‘s directorial debut about a third wheel starring Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning and Theo James, Reed Morano‘s relationship testing drama featuring Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson, Onur Tukel‘s secret unleashed on the airwaves and Gregory Kohn‘s hallucinatory tale with Eléonore Hendricks topling are part of the American independent offerings at the 14th Tribeca Film Festival. Renzi’s Franny and Morano’s Meadowland will be competing in the dozen selected in the World Narrative Competition while Tukel’s Applesauce and Kohn’s Come Down Molly are among the in the Viewpoints sidebar. Here are the selected titles below sans synopsis.

World Narrative Feature Competition (12)

The Adderall Diaries, directed and written by Pamela Romanowsky. (USA) – World Premiere.

Bridgend, directed by Jeppe Rønde, co-written by Jeppe Rønde, Torben Bech, and Peter Asmussen. (Denmark) – North American Premiere.

Dixieland, directed and written by Hank Bedford. (USA) – World Premiere

Franny, directed and written by Andrew Renzi.

Top brass at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival (Tff) presented by At&T have announced the World Narrative and Documentary Competition and Viewpoints selections.

Organisers also said that At&T’s Film For All Friday will return with free screenings on April 24. The festival is set to run in New York City from April 15-26 and the festival hub is Spring Studios.

Tuesday’s announcement covers 51 films out of a total 97 features at the upcoming 14th edition. As previously announced, Tribeca will open with the documentary Live From New York!

The line-up includes world premieres of Andrew Renzi’s Franny starring Richard Gere, Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries with James Franco, Amber Heard, Ed Harris and Cynthia Nixon and documentaries In My Father’s House by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg and In Transit from Albert Maysles and four co-directors.

Thirty of the festival’s feature film directors are women –the highest percentage in Tribeca history. Nine of...