News

The Cinema Eye Honors revealed the nominees for the 5th Annual Awards honoring Non-Fiction Filmmaking. Winners will be announced on January 11. Here's the list of the 2012 Cinema Eye Honors:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking:

"The Arbor," Directed by Clio Barnard, Produced by Tracy O.Riordan

"Senna," Directed by Asif Kapadia; Produced by James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner

"Project Nim," Directed by James Marsh, Produced by Simon Chinn

"Position Among the Stars," Directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich, Produced by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich

"Nostalgia for the Light," Directed by Patricio Guzmán, Produced by Renate Sachse

"The Interrupters," Directed by Steve James, Produced by Alex Kotlowitz and Steve James

Outstanding Achievement in Direction:

Clio Barnard for "The Arbor"

Leonard Retel Helmrich for "Position Among the Stars"

Patricio Guzmán for "Nostalgia for the Light"

Steve James for "The Interrupters"

Danfung Dennis for "Hell and Back Again"

Outstanding Achievement in Production:

Erik Nelson...

Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light From the the remains of political prisoners buried in Chile's Atacama desert to Muslim-Christian relationships within a (very large) family in Indonesia: Clio Barnard’s The Arbor, Steve James’ The Interrupters, Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light, Leonard Retel Helmrich’s Position Among the Stars, James Marsh’s Project Nim and Asif Kapadia’s Senna are all in the running for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking at the 2012 Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. It's the first time that six films are competing for the top Cinema Eye award. Seven documentaries received four nominations each, the highest number this year: Tristan Patterson’s Dragonslayer, Danfung Dennis’ Hell and Back Again, The Arbor, The Interrupters, Nostalgia for the Light, Position Among the Stars and Senna. In all, 33 films from 12 countries are vying for Cinema Eye awards in 11 categories. The five nominees for...

North America's largest documentary film festival, Hot Docs, opens today in Toronto and screens nearly 200 films through May 8 — and blogTO is already all over it, having run a mammoth preview in three parts (1, 2, 3), each divided into three sections: Top Picks, Recommended and Not So Recommended. I'll follow a sampling from those Top Picks with some recent reviews and overviews coming out the recently wrapped Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Empire North, winner of the 2010 Danish:dox Award at Cph:dox: "Danish artist Jakob Boeskov pulled off quite a stunt in 2001. After 9/11, he built a sniper gun designed to shoot Gps sensors into demonstrators; the pricks of the sensors penetrating the skin feeling like a mild mosquito bite. The gun was a fake, but the flocks of technology developers and international arms dealers were not. Hilarious and terrifying, it's like a performance-art James Bond film, only with real stakes. Raises provocative questions left and right,...

The 49th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival is an epic celebration of experimental media that runs for six days on March 22-27. There’s so much great stuff screening this year, it makes one wonder what they’ll have left for their 50th anniversary next year!

A couple of the highlights include the highly anticipated feature-length documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye by Marie Losier, which chronicles the pandrogynous love story between industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge and his late wife. The film already made a big splash at the Berlinale earlier in the year and looks to be a major hit on the festival circuit this year.

Also not to be missed is a special retrospective of one of this year’s festival jury members, Vanessa Renwick, a longtime favorite on Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film. Renwick will screen 10 of her quirky and artistic documentary portraits,...

SXSW Film Festival Announces Midnight Features & Shorts

Austin, TX – Today the SXSW Film Festival revealed their Midnight Features & Shorts program.

The Midnighters section of SXSW is known for premiering the work future stars of the horror genre. Filmmakers Eli Roth, and Ti West, are a few notable directors who have had their films screened during the Midnight Features.

”Our midnight programs are the bloody, beating heart of SXSW,” said SXSW Film Conference & Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “Since the beginning, midnight films have been an essential ingredient to what makes SXSW so exciting and fun, and this year’s selections are no exception.”

Out of over 3000 short films submitted, only 150 were chosen, and will screen as part of twelve overall shorts programs.

“After months of reviewing a record number of submissions, we’re tremendously happy to share the final program,” said Shorts Programmers Claudette Godfrey and Stephanie Noone, “The short films...

Following the unveiling of the fantastic 2011 feature line-up last week, the South by Southwest Film Festival has announced the films selected to play at midnight throughout the nine-day event, as well as the complete list of short films.

Insidious, a haunted house flick from Saw director James Wan, is among the midnight program, along with Xavier Gen’s sci-fi thriller The Divide, Sundance favorite Hobo With a Shotgun, Argentinean entry Phase 7, and Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block. In previous years, the midnight and SXFantastic programs has helped launch the careers of Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and Eli Roth (Hostel).

Spike Jonze returns to the festival with another short film titled Scenes from the Suburbs, his second collaboration with (and about) the band Arcade Fire after his moving feature Where the Wild Things Are.

For those of you attending the festival, the schedule will be released on February 15 along with details about film-related panels.

Today the midnight features and short sections were announced for SXSW 2011.

This year the midnight features section has some awesome films, including Hobo With A Shotgun, James Wan’s Insidious, Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, Xavier Gens’ The Divide, and Ben Wheatley’s Kill List. This years shorts include 150 films including, Spike Jonze’s Scenes from the Suburbs and a doc short from Jay Duplass.

Here's the full list of SXSW 2011 midnights and shorts:

Midnight Features

Midnighters

Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.

Films screening in Midnighters are:

Attack The Block (UK-England)

Director & Writer: Joe Cornish

A funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of alien monsters. It turns a tower block into a sci-fi playground. It’s inner city versus outer space. Cast: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard,...