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In the ‘90s teen romcom 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles), the film’s Riot Grrrl rebel who listens to Letters to Cleo and idolizes Sylvia Plath, wants nothing more than to attend Sarah Lawrence College. The choice tracks. A liberal arts college with less than 2,000 students nestled on 44 wooded acres in the suburb of Yonkers, New York, Sarah Lawrence not only boasts a certain sylvan-secluded charm, but also caters to artists and creatives, counting J.J. Abrams, Julianna Margulies, Carly Simon and Vera Wang among its notable alumni.

Exclusive: UK indie film distributor Signature Entertainment and Australian releaser Rialto Distribution have acquired UK and Australian rights respectively to war drama A Call To Spy.

The pic is directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, who was Oscar nominated in 2014 for documentary Cutie & The Boxer and is also a two-time Emmy winner. It tells the true story of two female spies – recruited under Churchill’s orders – who were sent undercover to undermine the Nazi regime in France during WWII. It stars Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, and Radhika Apte.

The film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival last year. IFC Films is releasing in North America.

Signature is lining up the UK bow for October, with Rialto to follow soon after. The deals were negotiated by Signature’s Director of Acquisitions and Development Elizabeth Williams, Rialto’s CEO Kelly Rogers and A Call to Spy’s writer, producer and actress Sarah...

Netflix is out with its list of everything coming and going from the platform in June, and new additions include the final seasons of “Fuller House” on June 2 and “13 Reasons Why” on June 5.

Other highlights include a new season of “Queer Eye” set in Philadelphia, also coming out on June 5, and season two of “The Politician” on June 19.

Leaving the streaming service are classics like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and all 11 seasons of “Cheers,” as well as modern favorites like “Avengers: Infinity War” and “The Polar Express.”

Also Read: Why Netflix's 'Space Force' Never Mentions Trump by Name

Below, find the full list of everything coming and going this June.

June 1

Act of Valor

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Bad News Bears

Cape Fear

Casper

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clow Card

Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura Card

Clueless

Cocomelon: Season 1

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

The Healer

Inside Man

Lust, Caution...

It’s a cycle for all streaming services. Alongside the myriad shows and movies added to their libraries every month, many will depart, too. So, in the interests of consumer awareness (there’s nothing worse than missing out on a movie because it’s no longer available), here’s an exhaustive list of all the content leaving Netflix in June, starting with those up to the 29th.

Leaving 6/1/20 – The King’s Speech

Leaving 6/3/20 – God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness

Leaving 6/4/20 – A Perfect Man

Leaving 6/7/20 – Equilibrium, From Paris with Love

Leaving 6/9/20 – Mad Men: Season 1-7

Leaving 6/10/20 – Standoff

Leaving 6/11/20 – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Series 1

Leaving 6/12/20:– Dragonheart, Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer, Dragonheart: A New Beginning, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire

Leaving 6/13/20 – Cutie and the Boxer

Leaving 6/16/20 – The Stanford Prison Experiment

Leaving 6/22/20 – Tarzan, Tarzan 2

Leaving 6/24/20 – Avengers: Infinity War

Leaving 6/27/20: Jeopardy!: Celebrate Alex Collection, Jeopardy!: Cindy Stowell Collection, Jeopardy!: Seth...

There’s no denying the race for documentary Oscar has changed dramatically in the past decade and even more so in the past five years. The reason for the shift? Money. What is debatable is if the shift is for the better.

There are many reasons for the recent exponential rise in docu campaign budgets. One is the 2012 Academy rule change that allowed for all members of the documentary branch to weigh in on the shortlist. Until 2011, small volunteer branch committees were in charge of viewing the year’s eligible entries, in their entirety, in order to form a shortlist. With an average of 100-plus docus eligible for Oscar consideration each year (this year there are 166 eligible films), ensuring a doc doesn’t get overlooked is a challenge for the majority of the qualified filmmakers. That challenge can be overcome with money, which leads to the second reason for the...

“Fake” is a Japanese documentary about a man called “Japan’s Beethoven”, a famous and reportedly deaf composer by the name of Mamoru Samuragochi. 18 months prior to the filming of this doc, a man by the name of Takashi Niigaki informed the Japanese press that he had been ghostwriting Samuragochi’s music and the composer wasn’t actually deaf. A media storm followed that and forced Samuragochi into seclusion and Takashi Niigaki became a minor celebrity appearing on Japanese variety shows. Filmmaker Tatsuya Mori meets with Samuragochi and his wife in their small apartment and explores Samuragochi’s sorrow, thoughts and desire to be redeemed in this intimate documentary.

“Fake” is screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival

When we first meet Samuragochi, director Tatsuay Mori tells him that he wants to focus on his sorrow. The disgraced man is clearly depressed and hardly leaves the small apartment that he...

Several national treasures are coming to Netflix in June, but only one stars Nicolas Cage and Diane Kruger. Other gems set to hit the streaming service next month besides “National Treasure” include Disney animated classics “101 Dalmatians” and “Tarzan,” as well as Colin Firth-starrer “The King’s Speech” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

Incoming television shows include Season 8 of “Portlandia,” Season 14 of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and Season 5 of Marvel’s “Agents of Shield.” “Queer Eye” Season 2 and “The Break With Michelle Wolf” Season 1 are among the original series set to debut on the streaming platform.

Check out the full list of incoming titles below.

June 1

Assassination Games

Blue Jasmine

Busted! (Season Finale)

101 Dalmatians

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

He Named Me Malala

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Just Friends

Miracle

National Treasure

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

November 13: Attack on Paris

Outside In

Righteous...

Netflix has confirmed that a slew of new original series will be debuting on the streaming service in June, including the second season of the Emmy contender “Glow.” And there will also be new to Netflix seasons of some of your favorites from other networks, including season 14 of “Grey’s Anatomy” and season 8 of “Portlandia.” Likewise, there will be plenty of movies making their first Netflix appearances including the latest installment in the “Star Wars” franchise, “The Last Jedi,” and the Oscar-winning “The King’s Speech.”

Of the new Netflix originals, several stand out as particularly binge-worthy, including the the sophomore edition of “Luke Cage” and the series finale of “Sense8.” And there will be weekly episodes of “The Break with Michelle Wolf,” fresh from her stint as host of the White House correspondents dinner.

Available June 1

Assassination Games

Blue Jasmine

Busted!: Season Finale

Disney’s 101 Dalmatians

George Balanchine...

With June around the corner, a fresh round of shows and movies will soon arrive on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

Netflix kicks off the month with some fan favorites for the first blistering hot days of the summer with “National Treasure,” “Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok,” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Several binge-worthy shows will be returning for viewers for another season, including “Glow” Season 2, “Marvel’s Luke Cage” Season 2, and the “Sense8” season finale.

Hulu offers its own dish of classics, including “Apocalypse Now,” “Carrie,” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Those looking for to finish out the shows they’ve been keeping up with have third season finales for “Reign,” “Penny Dreadful,” and “Faking It.”

Amazon rounds out the month with some comedy flicks, including “The Disaster Artist,” “Nacho Libre,” and the entire “Leprechaun” franchise. Fans of “Babylon 5” and “Rescue Me” will find they can...

Netflix has released a promo video featuring all of the big new films and shows that will be coming to the streaming service in June. I also included a full list of titles for you to go through that includes Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Departed, In Bruges, Thor: Ragnarok, Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 6, Luke Cage Season 2, and more. It looks like there's going to be a good amount of entertainment coming to Netflix in June to look forward to! What are you most excited about?!

June 1:

Assassination Games

Blue Jasmine

Busted! (Season Finale)

Disney's 101 Dalmatians

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

He Named Me Malala

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Just Friends

Miracle

National Treasure

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

November 13: Attack on Paris

Outside In

Righteous Kill

Rumor Has It

Singularity

Taking Lives

Terms and Conditions May Apply

The Boy

The Covenant

The...

A cartoonist, a Scottish alt-rocker, a trio of Oscar winners, and the world’s most famous drag queen are among the two-dozen jurors headed to the Sundance Film Festival later this week. The chosen cinephiles will comprise seven juries and award 28 prizes to their favorite entries. Actor Jason Mantzoukas — already scheduled to be in Park City with his comedy, “The Long Dumb Road” — will host the award ceremony on Saturday, January 27, the penultimate day of the festival. Last year’s winners included “Icarus,” “Ingrid Goes West,” and “I Don’t Feel At Home in this World Anymore.”

Find out more about the 2018 jury members below, thanks to Sundance.

Read More:Sundance 2018 Competition Lineup Boasts New Films from Paul Dano, Reed Morano, Idris Elba, Ethan Hawke, and More

U.S. Documentary Jury (Barbara Chai, Simon Chinn, Chaz Ebert, Ezra Edelman, and Matt Holzman)

Barbara Chai is head of arts and culture coverage at Dow Jones Media Group,...

Since the advent of television, a president’s charisma has been a deciding factor in an election and few had more of this quality than Ronald Reagan. Thanks to his early days as an announcer then as a Hollywood actor, he was well-equipped to appeal to the public and a new documentary, The Reagan Show, uses archival footage to showcase his performance as a president.

Directed by Pacho Velez (co-helmer of the brilliant Manakamana) and Sierra Pettengill (producer of Cutie and the Boxer), we’re pleased debut an exclusive clip from the film, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and will arrive in theaters this Friday. In the preview, we find the president dealing with a turkey (almost) on the loose, as well as commenting on the difficulty of being the leader of the free world vs. an actor.

Check out our exclusive clip below, along with the trailer,...

Cinema Eye has named 10 filmmakers and 20 films that have been voted as the top achievements in documentary filmmaking during the past 10 years. Founded in 2007 to “recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film,” Cinema Eye polled 110 members of the documentary community to determine the winning films and filmmakers just as the organization kicks off its tenth year.

Read More: Behind the Scenes of Cinema Eye’s Secret Field Trip for Nominees

Among the films chosen are Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” and Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Poitras and Oppenheimer were both also named to the list of the top documentary filmmakers, joining Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman, who recently won an honorary Oscar and will be saluted at the annual Governors Awards on November 12.

“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized by the Academy for a...

The San Francisco Film Society has just unveiled the three winners of the 2016 Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards. Totaling $75,000, the funds will support the feature-length documentaries in post-production and help push them towards completion. Chosen for their compelling stories, intriguing characters and innovative visual approach, the winners are: “For Ahkeem” by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest, “The Rescue List” by Alyssa Fedele and Zachary Fink and Peter Bratt’s “Woman in Motion.”

“These projects are great examples of balance between artistic vision and social impact,” stated the jury in a statement. “They tell neglected or overlooked stories by exploring the lives of very interesting characters who stand for larger social issues. For ‘Ahkeem’ is an extremely patient verité film, yet with a sense of political urgency in the way it tackles its complex subject. ‘The Rescue List’ portrays an artful balance of ethnography and visual poetry while it brings...

Today, the San Francisco Film Society today announced the ten finalists for the 2016 Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards totaling $75,000. The Sffs Documentary Film Fund supports feature-length documentaries in postproduction and was created to support singular nonfiction film work. Finalists were selected from more than 200 applications, and winners will be announced in mid-September.

Read More: How the San Francisco Film Society is Empowering Filmmakers With Technology

Dff has an excellent track record for championing compelling films that have gone on to earn great acclaim. Previous winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s “Cutie and the Boxer,” which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature; Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s “American Promise,”which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize in the documentary category; and Moby Longinotto’s “The Joneses,” which premiered at the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival.

By Patrick Shanley

Managing Editor

When it comes to this year’s Academy Awards, no word is more buzzworthy than “diversity”. For the second year in a row the Oscars have nominated only white actors in their four main acting categories, sparking backlash and, as a result, inciting the Academy to announce new changes to tackle its “diversity problem”.

Amidst another year of #OscarsSoWhite trending on Twitter, however, the fact that 2015 has been an exceptionally strong year for women has been largely overlooked. Three of this year’s best picture nominees (Brooklyn, Room, Mad Max: Fury Road) are female-centric and feature strong female protagonists in the center of the action. In fact, even outside of those films and their performances, a number of women are nominated for best picture as producers, as well. Kristie Macosko Krieger is nominated for Bridge of Spies, Blye Pagon Faust is nominated for Spotlight, Dede Gardner...

Among the highlights that are new on Amazon December 2015 will the blockbusters Ant-Man (pictured) and Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, which are available for purchase on Amazon Instant Video. Those and other highlights below. New On Amazon December 2015 Piv: New In December 2015 — Available for Streaming on Prime Instant Video Available December 1 Bedazzled The Details Hoffa Monkey Business River of No Return Something’s Gotta Give (exclusive streaming home) Available December 9 Meet Me in Montenegro (exclusive streaming home) Available December 11 Transparent Season 2 Available December 12 Interstellar Tumble Leaf Season 2 Available December 15 Cutie and the Boxer Available … Continue reading →

The post What’s new on Amazon December 2015 appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

Streaming services are a crucial addition to modern civilization, but only in December do they become a truly indispensible survival tool. Whether curled around your laptop in order to keep warm or retreating to your favorites queue in a desperate attempt to hide from your loved ones, this is the season when having something good to watch can mean the difference between life and death.

Fortunately for us, Netflix, Hulu, and the other major hubs have busted out the big guns just in time. From indisputable classics to contemporary gems,...

When the award-winning Manakamana landed on the film festival circuit (the Golden Leopard win in Locarno was the first of many worthy acknowledgments), it not only further demonstrated the excellence out of the Sensory Ethnography Lab and made a name for the filmmaker tandem with an anthropological-like curiosity, but one refreshing takeaway was that it reminded us that there are novel approaches in nonfiction filmmaking with huge, emotionally giddy payoffs. For his next project, docu-helmer Pacho Velez takes a President whose legacy mysteriously continues to enflame and shape current politico debate. Spliced into three parts and presented as a series of shorts (The Reagan Shorts) at the Rotterdam Film Fest this past January, The Reagan Years is certainly in getting ready phase as it was invited to the July set Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Lab. Proposed as an archival journey from Hollywood to the White House, the big...

Totally and tragically unconventional, Peggy Guggenheim moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century collecting not only not only art, but artists. Her sexual life was -- and still today is -- more discussed than the art itself which she collected, not for her own consumption but for the world to enjoy.

Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.

In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.

Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)

Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.

"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."

Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .

Let's try to cover new territory here.

First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?

Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.

Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?

Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.

Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?

Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .

Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?

Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.

World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.

Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?

Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.

Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.

The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.

Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?

Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.

It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.

So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.

Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.

There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.

And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.

Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?

Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.

Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.

Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.

Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.

She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.

Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.

Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.

The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.

A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.

Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?

Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...

She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.

She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.

Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?

Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.

Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?

Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.

We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.

It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.

Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?

Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.

Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.

Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?

Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.

About the Filmmakers

Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.

David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.

David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".

Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.

He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.

He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.

John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).

Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.

Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.

Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".

Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".

Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?

Credits

Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)

Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)

Josh Braun (executive producer)

Bob Benton (executive producer)

John Northrup (co-producer)

Bernadine Colish (editor)

Jed Parker (editor)

Peter Trilling (director of photography)

Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)

Music by J. Ralph

Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph

Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White

Running time: 97 minutes

U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe

International sales by Hanway...

Three-time emmy award winning documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner is set to speak at this year's Antenna Documentary Film Festival in Sydney..

As part of DocTalk, delegates will hear from leading international documentary specialists, including festival programmers and funding experts, at the one-day series of masterclasses and panel discussion.

Acclaimed Us documentary filmmaker, Berliner; Wieland Speck and Maryanne Redpath from the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale); and Leah Biblin from Cinereach in New York will speak at DocTalk in Sydney on Wednesday 14 October 2015.

Berliner will deliver the Directing Documentary Masterclass at DocTalk.

Speck, the director of the Panorama section at Berlinale - a position that he.s held for more than 20 years - will provide insight into Berlinale and the European Film Market at DocTalk.

Redpath, the official Berlinale Delegate for Australia and New Zealand, head of the Generation section and head curator of the NATIVe series of Indigenous programming at Berlinale,...

One of Los Angeles’ most lavish and historic film venues, The Theater at Ace Hotel, will host Sundance Next Fest once again August 7-9. Cinema and music come together for a second time during this weekend–long event that will showcase 5 films representing distinctively unique visions. These independent works taken from several sections within this year’s Park City program will screen for L.A. audiences followed by either a musical act or a special guest speaker. Last year the slate included “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, “Imperial Dreams” and "Life After Beth," which were accompanied by performers Warpaint, Tinashe, and Father John Misty, respectively. Thanks to the eclectic pairings, Next Fest became one of the most memorable festivals to take place in the city.

This time around the program looks even more compelling with a variety of filmmaking approaches that include the latest Noah Baumbach/Greta Gerwig collaboration, Rick Alverson’s new mind-bending flick, and an offbeat documentary that borders on the surreal.The festival kicked-off on Sunday with a packed outdoor screening of Jon Watts's "Cop Car" at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery hosted alongside Cinespia.

We talked to Sundance programmer Charlie Reff who shared his excitement for the film selection and dished out about the process of curating such peculiar celebration of audiovisual creativity.

Aguilar: It seems like the batch of films included in this year's Next Fest comes from a variety of sections in the Sundance 2015 program. You have films not only from the Next section, but also from Midnight, Premieres, and even a documentary. Tell me about the process or parameters to select these films.

Charlie Reff: This is the third year of the festival, counting the first year as Next Weekend, and we’ve never had specifically only Next section films. I believe last year we played four films from the Next section. We played a film from Midnight last year, and we played a doc called “Cutie and the Boxer” the first year. We definitely want to keep the diversity of the lineup. We still feel all the films are representative of Next. We like that Next is this idea of artistic pursuits that have an unconventional approach to storytelling, even a film like “Mistress America.” The reason we wanted to play that is because when Noah works with Greta in films like “Frances Ha” and now “Mistress America," they don’t feel like his other films. His other films have a certain tone and point of view, but when he and Greta had gone off to make these films, they are wildly different stylistically from the other films he’s done.

Even in the first year of the festival we were hoping to play a film like “Prince Avalanche,” but it came out before the festival. That was David Gordon Green, a studio guy being like, “Fuck it, I wanna go make a weird unique film without anybody holding me back.” We want to show films form the filmmakers that are still willing to go in this direction and the new generation that’s coming up and is committed to it still. I feel like it makes sense including a doc. I love “Finders Keepers,” it was one my favorite films at the festival and it’s just so unique. It’s such a unique watch for a documentary film. We want to champion the different approaches people are taking.

Aguilar: So you sit down with your team to figure out what films to play at Next Fest and go through every possible film from the Park City program?

Charlie Reff: One thing that’s actually interesting, is that first thing we think about is that any film released before the festival is automatically off the table. It was actually really unique this year distribution-wise because I think so many films rushed to release this year. I don’t know if you noticed that, but there were so many films coming out in the summer and the spring that were just acquired or coming out on VOD. That’s one thing that wipes away nearly half the slate. Beyond that, there are a lot of films that we want to play, but we need them all to have this unique Next quality that I talked about.

Aguilar: So you probably wouldn’t play a film like “Brooklyn,” which is very classical in terms of the filmmaking style and approach.

Charlie Reff: Exactly. I love the hell out of “Brooklyn,” but it’s so wonderfully classical that it would never play at Next Fest. The interesting thing that we always talk about when programming the Park City festival, and that it’s always a difficult thing for people to understand, is that every film that plays in the Next section could potentially play in our U.S. Dramatic Competition, but not every film in the U.S. Dramatic Competition could play in Next. They need to have that wild inventive quality to them, and that’s not to disrespect films that use classic storytelling, but that’s just how Next Fest is.

Aguilar: How do you decide what musical act goes well with a certain film? It seems like a complicated task and a leap of faith because it's difficult to know how an audience will react to a certain combination.

Charlie Reff: After going through it last year programming Next Fest and then programming last year’s and this year’s Park City festivals, as soon as I was watching a movie that I knew we were going to play and felt like a potentially cool Next Fest film, I was automatically already brainstorming ideas. It was like, “What would be an interesting crossover audience for this film? What musician has the right fan base that would love this film?” or vice versa, “The fan base for this film, what music do I think that they’ll be really into?“ I start thinking about the films and the music in my head and with my phone all the way back in November. We have the films to bring to people in, so I think about what music could be interesting and could make sort of a big statement.

With “Mistress America” I always wanted to pair it with Sky Ferreira. I’m a big fan of her. I know “Mistress America” has the Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig fan base. They pull that audience, so it’s about, “What can we do different? What audience could we bring to this film that would really get into it?” I started thinking about an ideal musician for the female, college-age, twenty-something, audience. “What artist can we bring in that would pull that kind of audience to ‘Mistress America’?" They maybe don’t know about the film yet, but they’ll fucking love it! That’s how the program for “Mistress America” came about.

“Entertainment” and Sharon Van Etten was a really hard one to pull together just because it’s such a singular and provocative film. I had conversations with Rick Alverson, the director of the film, about what kind of mood would be good for after the film. We were thinking of something really aggressive afterwards and Rick wasn’t really into that idea. He said, “Honestly, it’s quite a ride you are putting that audience through with the film and it probably wouldn’t be good to put even more in-your-face kind of intensity after.” We thought that the film was almost like a folk tale and that it has that wanderer feel to it, so I started thinking about folksy artists. Sharon Van Etten popped into my head because I love her and she is beyond talented. When I think of all the films that I’ve watched in the world and all the music that I’ve listened to, I realize that Rick Alverson is a filmmaker that throws me for a loop when I watch his films. As much as I think that I understand cinema, when I see his films they completely disorient me. That’s what’s special about him. Maybe this has happened to you with other filmmakers, but he blows my mind so much that I kind of almost stop breathing and I think, “What the fuck am I seeing? What is he putting us through? What is he exploring? “ At the same time Sharon Van Ette is so raw. She is such a beautiful performer. Once when I was watching her set I found myself really listening to what she was singing about and I was like, “Wow, this sis really, really personal.” This is how the selection happens. It’s not some specific formula.

Regarding “Turbo Kid,” it’s always been a dream to do something like this from the moment of pitching idea of Next Fest. I would always talk about, “Man, there are all these films coming out that are pulling from 80s aesthetics and there is a very similar strand of music.” It’s such a popular thing and I thought that’s something we would do one year. Then “Turbo Kid” came along and I was like, “Fuck Yeah!” This is the ultimate movie to do this with and celebrate the idea of this generations that’s influenced by the sounds and aesthetics of the 80s. Toro Y Moi are two of my favorite artists that really experiment with those sounds and push them forward. The greatest thing about them is that neither one of them do it ironically or mocking. There is sincerity in the love for the music they are creating and the music from the time period that has been so influential for them. That’s what “Turbo Kid“ is too. It’s not an ironic film, is a love letter and it’s shockingly sincere about its love of the 80s. That’s something I wanted to do. I didn’t want to make a joke of the 80s, I wanted people who love the 80s.

Aguilar: The other two films will have a special Q&A instead of a musical act. What can you tell me about the speakers that will accompany the films and filmmakers?

Charlie Reff: We always talk to the filmmakers and we ask for ideas from them. With “Cronies” by Michael Larnell, we will have a filmmaker that came before him and that was “the guy” who he felt understood what they were creating. The speaker will be Robert Townsend.

With "Finders Keepers" we wanted a really fun conversation and we chose someone who will ask the really fun and exciting questions out of all the questions that someone could ask the filmmaker. We will have Thomas Middletich to ask the strange questions about the reality of the story. We will also have John, the subject for the film there as well.

Aguilar: Next Fest is back at the Theater at Ace Hotel, which is a fantastic venue. It feels like the ideal place to show these films in L.A.

Charlie Reff: We love working with them. They have been incredibly supportive. They got it. Two years before the very first festival, when we it was called Next Weekend, we had already visited the Ace Hotel while it was still under construction. We were exploring this idea that maybe it’ll be fun to play new independent films in old movie palaces. I love the idea because I think these places are incredibly special. That was in the back of our heads and then when we heard about the Ace being done, we went to them and explain what we were trying to do and they were like, “Yeah, we are in.” We love being there.

Find out more about Sundance Next Fest 2015 and get tickets to the events Here...

Academy invitee Eddie Redmayne in 'The Theory of Everything.' Academy invites 322 new members: 'More diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before' The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has offered membership to 322 individuals "who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures." According to the Academy's press release, "those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2015." In case all 322 potential new members say an enthusiastic Yes, that means an injection of new blood representing about 5 percent of the Academy's current membership. In the words of Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs (as quoted in the press release), in 2015 "our branches have recognized a more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before, and we look forward to adding their creativity, ideas and experience to our organization." In recent years, the Academy membership has...

©Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©Studio Pali Fekete architects/©A.M.P.A.S.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the Los Angeles City Council, in a unanimous vote, approved plans for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Construction will begin this summer, and ceremonial groundbreaking festivities will occur this fall.

“I am thrilled that Los Angeles is gaining another architectural and cultural icon,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office of economic development has worked directly with the museum’s development team to ensure that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will create jobs, support tourism, and pay homage to the industry that helped define our identity as the creative capital of the world.”

“We are grateful to our incredible community of supporters who have helped make this museum a reality,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “Building this museum has been an Academy...

Strangely dropping a press release on a historic day where the nation's attention is elsewhere, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their annual list of new member invitees this morning. For those who criticize the makeup of the Academy there was some good news and the stark realization the organization still has a long way to go. The Academy has spent the last eight to 10 years attempting to diversify its membership and this year's class mostly reflects that. There are significantly more invitees of Asian and African-American descent, but the male to female disparity is still depressing. Out of the 25 potential new members of the Actor's Branch only seven are women. And, no, there isn't really an acceptable way for the Academy to spin that sad fact. Additionally, It's important to realize the 322 people noted in the release have only been invited to join Hollywood's most exclusive club.

After haunting moviegoers this spring, the relentless entity in David Robert Mitchell's It Follows is going to make house calls this summer, as Anchor Bay Entertainment, RADiUS, and Dimension are releasing It Follows on Blu-ray and DVD on July 14th:

Press Release -- "Beverly Hills, Calif. – May 19, 2015 – The critically acclaimed breakout movie of the year, It Follows arrives on Blu-ray™ and DVD July 14th from Anchor Bay Entertainment, RADiUS and Dimension. Dubbed “the best horror film in over a decade”*, It Follows is directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover), and stars Maika Monroe (upcoming Independence Day 2, The Guest), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story, “United States of Tara”), Daniel Zovatto (Beneath, Innocence, Laggies) and Jake Weary (Altitude, Fred).

One of the highest grossing independent films of the year so far, It Follows is credited with ushering in a new era of indie film success,...

This year's Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards total $75,000 to support feature-length docs in postproduction. Esteemed past winners include Zachary Heinzerling's 2014 Oscar-nominated "Cutie and the Boxer," Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s 2013 Sundance winner "American Promise" and Jason Zeldes' "Romeo Is Bleeding," which just premiered at the Sf International Film Festival. The Fund has distributed over $450,000 to national filmmakers since 2011. The panelists who reviewed the 11 finalists’ submissions are Jennifer Battat, founder of the Jenerosity Foundation; Noah Cowan, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society; Lisa Kleiner-Chanoff, cofounder of Catapult Film Fund; filmmaker Dan Krauss; and Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of the Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program. Watch: Homegrown Bay Area Doc "Romeo Is Bleeding" Hits Sf Film Fest (Exclusive Clip) 2015 Documentary Film Fund Winners: "The Island...

In our latest round-up, we take a look at the theatrical release details for L.A. Slasher, Anchor Bay Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Monsters: Dark Continent, and the news of Helix being cancelled by Syfy.

L.A. Slasher: Press Release -- "Los Angeles, CA (April 27, 2015) - Archstone Distribution has announced that the horror-dark comedy feature L.A. Slasher, directed by Martin Owen and produced by Jeffrey Wright and Daniel Sollinger, will receive a North American theatrical release starting June 12 in select AMC Theatres.

“We are very excited to take L.A. Slasher to the silver screen," Archstone Distribution's President & CEO Brady Bowen stated. "It is a highly entertaining film with a unique voice that we know audiences are going to love!”

L.A. Slasher Producer Daniel Sollinger remarked, “My team and I are thrilled to be working with Archstone, as they have a steady track record for bringing high quality films to audiences worldwide.

Sundance Institute has announced it will continue its film festivals in Hong Kong this year and London next year, with selections for each largely drawn from the Institute’s renowned Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A. These events are part of the Institute’s work to share independent films with audiences abroad.

The Institute has a more than 30-year legacy of discovering new films and filmmakers, which in recent years has included Academy Award winners and nominees "Whiplash," "Boyhood," "20 Feet from Stardom," "Cutie and the Boxer" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild," as well as "Fruitvale Station," "Life Itself," "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," "The Way, Way Back" and "The Invisible War."

Hong Kong and London were selected for their rich cinematic history and engaged communities of independent filmmakers, film-loving audiences and local cultural partners. The Institute has long supported artists in each region through its annual Labs, grants and other programs, and work from these regions is regularly selected for the Sundance Film Festival.

Robert Redford, President and Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “We’ve nurtured filmmakers around the globe for many years now and these experiences have brought a rich perspective to all we do. Exploring international opportunities for the diverse landscape of American independent storytelling is an exciting proposition, and something to which we are equally committed.”

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “There are too few opportunities for independent artists to connect with international audiences, despite the increasing importance of this in building sustainable careers. Our events in Hong Kong and London are steps toward bridging this gap and show the openness of international audiences to exploring these films and issues.”

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, said, “These events allow us to extend the tremendous energy and excitement of our Sundance Film Festival to adventurous audiences in Hong Kong and London. We look forward to building programs that are special to each location and, like our centerpiece Festival, are fueled by a spirit of discovery and creativity.”

Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong — September 17-27, 2015

The Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong will take place September 17-27, 2015, covering Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two consecutive weekends at The Metroplex, a newly opened state-of-the-art cineplex in Kowloon Bay in Hong Kong. Ten independent films will premiere as part of the screening series, marking its second year. The first year’s program featured the Hong Kong premieres of films including "Whiplash," "The Skeleton Twins," "Life After Beth" and "The Case Against 8." More information at hk.sundance.org; join the conversation on social media with #sundancehongkong.

Sundance Film Festival: London — 2016

The Sundance Film Festival: London will take place in 2016 at the new Picturehouse Central. The festival will build on the success of Sundance London, hosted in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and which featured the international and UK premieres of films including "Fruitvale Station," "Obvious Child," "Frank," "The Trip to Italy," " The Queen of Versailles," "Blackfish," "Upstream Color" and "The Look of Love" and was attended by filmmakers, artists and supporters including Hrh The Prince of Wales, Michael Fassbender, Gemma Arterton, Ryan Reynolds, Gina Rodriguez, Lake Bell, Jimmy Carr, the Eagles, Peaches, David Cross, Rose McGowan, Minnie Driver and Rufus Wainwright. More information will be available at sundance.org/london; join the conversation on social media with #sundancelondon.

After months of extensive redevelopment of the former Cineworld Shaftesbury Avenue, Picturehouse will open their West End flagship, Picturehouse Central, with 1000 seats, seven screens and three café bars in June. The reinvention of the spaces will create a brand new cinema in the heart of the West End. With Dolby Atmos sound and 4k projection, Picturehouse Central will be the best place to watch a huge variety of films, ranging from quality blockbusters to independent, classic, foreign-language and art-house. The cinema will champion documentaries as a core element of its programming. The ground floor will include a New York Deli-style café with a grand staircase leading up to a first-floor bar with views over Shaftesbury Avenue. A double-height Central Members’ bar on the second and third floors will include a roof terrace with stunning views over London.

In advance of this 2016 festival, the Institute will host a few private screenings and events for London’s independent film community at the new Picturehouse Central in June of this year. Those events are to date supported by: Lead Partners – Kickstarter and Sundance Channel Global; and Supporting Partners – Dolby, Hp, The Langham, London, Picturehouse Central, and the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Do you have nightmares about Bill Lumbergh telling you to put new cover sheets on your Tps reports? For some, the corporate cubicle setting is as horrifying as the creepy boiler rooms that Freddy Krueger haunts in the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Script excerpts and storyboards for an imagined tenth film in the Elm Street franchise show Freddy tormenting a coma patient by placing him in a mind-numbing office environment where meaningless meetings, tear-inducing small talk, and countless hours of hellish tasks reign supreme, with no escape in sight. Also included in our latest round-up are Blu-ray / DVD release details and cover art for the Salma Hayek-starring Everly and information on the 20 recently announced Star Wars books that will take place in the time period between Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.

A Nightmare on Elm Street...

The San Francisco Film Society has announced the 11 contenders for its $75,000-plus 2015 Sffs Documentary Film Fund supporting feature documentaries in post-production.

Organisers selected the finallists from more than 300 applications and the winners will be announced in early April.

Previous fund winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie And The Boxer, which won the Sundance directing award for documentary and Shaul Schwarz’s Narco Cultura, which also premiered in Park City in 2013.

The fund finallists are:

The Bad Kids – Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, co-directors;

Forever Pure – Maya Zinshtein, director; Geoff Arbourne, producer;

Forty Panes – Laura Dunn, director;

Infanity – Ramona Diaz, director;

The Island And The Whales – Mike Day, director;

Learning To Forget – Kaspar Astrup Schröder, director; Katherine Sahlstrom, producer;

Liyana – Aaron Kopp and Amanda Kopp, co-directors;

The Oakland Police Project – Peter Nicks, director;

Selling Our Daughters – Dave Adams and Josie Swantek, co-directors; Susan MacLaury, producer;

Uncertain – Ewan McNichol and Anna Sandilands, co-directors; and[p...

The San Francisco Film Society today announced the 11 finalists for the 2015 Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards totaling more than $75,000, which support feature-length documentaries in post-production. The Sffs Documentary Film Fund was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. Previous Dff winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s "Cutie and the Boxer," which won Sundance's Directing Award and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson's "American Promise," which premiered at Sundance in 2013 and won the festival's Special Jury Prize in the Documentary category. This year's winners will be announced in early April. The finalists, selected from over 300 applications, are listed below (with descriptions courtesy of Sffs): The Bad Kids – Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, co-directors The Bad Kids...

The San Francisco Film Society today announces the 11 finalists for the 2015 Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards totaling more than $75,000, which support feature-length docs in postproduction. Finalists were culled from more than 300 applications, and winners will be announced in early April. Past Documentary Film Fund winners include Zachary Heinzerling's "Cutie and the Boxer," winner of Sundance's Directing Award for documentary and nominee for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s "American Promise," which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize for documentary; and Shaul Schwarz’s harrowing "Narco Cultura," which premiered to strong reviews at Sundance the same year. The 11 Documentary Film Fund finalists projects are: The Bad Kids – Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, codirectors The Bad Kids brings...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

For almost 30 years, Mark Landis forged artwork and passed it off as his own to various museums around the country. It wasn’t until Matthew Leininger, a registrar at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, investigated the pieces in 2008 that the forgery was exposed. Leininger dedicated his time to investigating Landis further, and the scale of forgeries was revealed in 2012. Both men are featured in Art and Craft, a documentary about Landis, directed by Jennifer Grausman and Sam Cullman and co-directed by Mark Becker. Because Landis never sold his work to the museums, only donated the works in what he calls acts of “philanthropy”, he was never prosecuted.

The Hollywood Reporter’s John DeFore said, “The film will appeal to art lovers, but some viewers who can hardly tell their Cezannes from Chagalls will find the story fascinating as well.”

The film was picked by...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...

Not unlike the previous year, a whopping eight thousand plus short films were submitted to Sundance this year. Among some of the filmmaker names that we are already familiar with, we find several feature filmmakers moonlighting back to the short form; basically the short is healthier than ever. Topping the 2015 crop, we have Jake Mahaffy (whose feature, Free in Deed appears to be somewhere in post) who contributes to our understanding of 13th century rule with the year specific, A.D. 1363, The End of Chivalry. We have Cutie and the Boxer helmer working in the fiction form with Hugh the Hunter and form the same vintage 2013 year, fellow feature film helmer Shaka King (director of Newlyweeds) turns in a short in Mulignans (see pic above). Michael Mohan who has been to Sundance with features One Too Many Dates and Save the Date, returns with Pink Grapefruit.

Crossing into the international shorts,...

With year end lists already flooding the interwebs a full month before the actual year’s end, its hard to ignore the fact that awards season is now in full swing. Tons of documentary awards have already been handed out, whether its for Ida (not Pawel Pawlikowski’s gorgeous new film) or for Cinema Eye Honors, there are plenty of worthy films getting their due recognition. Plus, several international festivals have handed out major awards this month, including Idfa, which hosted their awards ceremony just minutes ago. The full roundup is just below:

Dok Leipzig – Germany – October 27th – November 2nd

At the close of the 57th edition of the German documentary festival the Golden Dove Award, the festival’s highest honor, was given to Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard’s Rules of the Game, while the Leipziger Ring Film Prize went to Laura Poitras’s Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour, the...

Held on October 25 in New York City, the panel -- The Ms. Factor: The Power of Female-driven Content -- was held on October 25 in New York City, as part of the Inaugural Produced By: NY event sponsored by the Producers Guild of America.

Panel Description: Audience demographics and buying power are changing. The power of females at the box office reigned supreme this past summer in terms of on-screen presence and audience turnout. A look at the 100 highest-earning movies of 2013 reveals that on average, movies with a female protagonist earned 20% more than movies with a male protagonist. So why the overall shortage of female protagonists and women filmmakers? What hurdles or opportunities does the current environment present for producers seeking to tell stories about girls or women?

The panel moderated by Cathy Schulman ("Crash;" "The Illusionist;" President, Mandalay Pictures & Women In Film La) featured Kelly Edwards (VP Talent Development, HBO), Lydia Dean Pilcher ("Cutie and the Boxer;" "The Lunchbox;" "The Darjeeling Limited;" Vice President: Motion Pictures, Producers Guild of America), Stacy Smith (Director, Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative, USC Annenberg), and Lauren Zalaznick ( "Kids;" "Zoolander;" Media Executive Founder & Curator, The Lz Sunday Paper).

The printed information sheet ‘Females in Film & TV Facts: On Screen Behind the Camera, and Career Barriers Faced’ was available to attendees from panelist Stacy L. Smith.

An Overview:

Onscreen Portrayals

Prevalence of Females across 100 Top Films from 2007 to 2013:

Percentage of female characters in 2007: 29.9% and in 2013: 29.2%

Percentage of films with gender parity in 2007: 12% and in 2013: 16 %

Percentage with female lead/co-lead in 2007: 20% and in 2013: 28%

Behind the Camera

Prevalence of Female Filmmakers across 100 Top Films from 2007 to 2013

Percentage of female directors in 2007: 2.7% and in 2013: 1.9%

Percentage of female writers in 2007: 11.2% and in 2013: 7.4%

Percentage of female producers in 2007: 20.5% and in 2013: 19.6%

Gender ratio in 2007: 5 to 1 and in 2013 5.3 to 1

Independent Film Behind the Camera

Prevalence of Females Behind the Camera at Sundance Film Festival 2002-2012

Director: Narrative 16.9% Documentary: 34.5%

Writer: Narrative: 20.6% Documentary 32.8

Producer: Narrative: 29.4% Documentary 45.9%

Cinematographer: Narrative: 9.5% Documentary: 19.9%

Editor: Narrative: 22% Documentary: 35.8%

The Prevalence of Female Filmmaker across 120 Global Films from 2010 to 2013 in the United Sates:

Directors: 0, Writers: 11.8%, Producers 22.7% and the Gender Ratio 3.4 to 1.

For more information on these reports: http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/DrStacyLSmithMDSCI

Moderator Cathy Schulman opened the discussion with the goal for the panel -- to discuss some of the myth-busting in the industry and the deep set cultural ennui.

Cathy Schulman: How do we break the status quo?

Lydia Dean Pilcher: There is a perception in our industry that female-driven content is not commercial. We see that’s not true. Women are driving the conversation. We have a responsibility to debunk perception. Finance models are driven by foreign sales estimates and the myth is prevalent among foreign sales agents. We have new data for female-driven content internationally.

Cathy Schulman : Statistically 93 percent of foreign sales buyers are men,

Stacy L. Smith: On screen, less than one-third of the speaking characters are girls and women, and if you are trying to appeal to the women audience, you’ve lost proportion. Behind the camera, there’s a fiscal cliff; very few women are attached as directors in narrative films. Women are perceived as less confident to lead a production crew. Internationally, female-driven films made more money. The audience is there, but authenticity is lacking due to who’s behind the camera.

About Television and Cable

Lauren Zalanick: In television there is some movement that may be systemic or cyclical, we don’t know. The most powerful showrunner today is not the most powerful female showrunner, it’s the most-powerful showrunner -- Shonda Rhimes. The heat around television programming now is based on strong female characters.

Cathy Schulman : Kelly, what are you seeing in cable TV, how does it compare? Also, you’ve been involved in diversity, can you speak to those factors?

Kelly Edwards: We (at HBO) are charged with bringing ethnic and gender to our network. I find the ennui comes often with people relying upon who’s in your circle; people hire who’s in their contact list and who’s in arm’s reach. My job is to make sure that list is expanded upon. There is that bias. We keep having the same conversation over and over again. For example, regarding cinematographers, I brought in 10 DPs and maybe five were white directors, the list of cinematographers is so tiny. There are 900 in the local 600 (union) in Los Angeles. What we realized was that they weren’t connected (to the producers and directors).

The Good News and the Other News

Cathy Schulman : Where are the women in power in all this? Who’s making the decisions?

Kelly Edwards: The good news is, in television we do have more power; women are in creative roles, they are strong and not afraid to showrun.

Lydia Dean Pilcher: I produce for a lot of women directors. I feel in my work, pitching female-driven content and female directors, there is institutional resistance. I always understood that women tell stories differently than men do in a positive way, but these (the statistics) are abysmal numbers. This resistance -- this is why we have to debunk the myth of the power of the audience. It translates to money.

Lauren Zalanick : Anyone with the purse strings will dictate.

On the Young Adult Audience

Lydia Dean Pilcher: I’ve produced for teen girls and I became frustrated that there was no distribution; the indie producers don’t distribute teens. I was thrilled when Fault of Our Stars came out. The trend is that the Hollywood model is breaking down. There’s a different methodology with the new platforms, including VOD (video on demand).

I asked the panel: What advice can you give to female film and screenwriting students soon to be graduating and trying to break into the industry when males are still holding the purse strings?

Kelly Edwards: If you’re in college now, you need to be doing an internship. Studios, companies want to see on your resume that you’ve already done something in the industry. All studios now have paid internships year-round. There are always opportunities. When students are just out of college, network.

The other panelists jumped in with additional advice to join and research organizations, including the Women in Film and Television chapters, and the new programs at Sundance and the Independent Feature Project. They all agreed: “Don’t quit. Persevere.”

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...

Documentary awards took place last night [Nov 3] at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Particle Fever and Cutie and the Boxer were among the film winners at last night’s Grierson Awards, held in association with Sky Atlantic and Shell.

Mark Levinson’s Particle Fever, about the quest for find the Higgs boson, won the Satusfaction Best Science or Natural History Documentary and was praised as a “stunning piece of work” by the jury, while Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer scooped the Bertha Dochouse Best Cinema Documentary award with the jury calling it a “true gem”.

The big winner on the night was Channel 4 as it took a record eight of the 13 award available, including two wins for Education Yorkshire for Envy Best Documentary Series Award and Radio Times Reader’s Choice Award.

Peter Aker’s Sing Your Heart Out received the Sky Atlantic Best Student Documentary, while former Wall To Wall chief executive Alex Graham was awarded...

Documentary awards took place last night [Nov 3] at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Particle Fever and Cutie and the Boxer were among the film winners at last night’s Grierson Awards, held in association with Sky Atlantic and Shell.

Mark Levinson’s Particle Fever, about the quest for find the Higgs boson, won the Satusfaction Best Science or Natural History Documentary and was praised as a “stunning piece of work” by the jury, while Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer scooped the Bertha Dochouse Best Cinema Documentary award with the jury calling it a “true gem”.

The big winner on the night was Channel 4 as it took a record eight of the 13 award available, including two wins for Education Yorkshire for Envy Best Documentary Series Award and Radio Times Reader’s Choice Award.

Peter Aker’s Sing Your Heart Out received the Sky Atlantic Best Student Documentary, while former Wall To Wall chief executive Alex Graham was awarded...

The film is dizzying in its portrayal of the man (is he simple-minded or a genius?) whose art equals craft and who has supplied many, many museums of artfully forged paintings by masters across the ages. Is he an artist or just a very talented forger? I think his forging is an art in itself.

It fits into a genre of “art films” dealing with eccentric (and lovable) artists (and their collectors or copiers), such as “Tim’s Vermeer”, “Herb and Dorothy: 50 x 50” or “Cutie and the Boxer” or “Bill Cunningham". What types of people these artists are brings viewers to experience an amazing range of distinctive and odd folk. Not only is art (or the love of art in the case of “Herb and Dorothy”) a tough passion, it is based upon tough eccentric personalities whose passions carry them though tough times in which their survival an issue that they choose to overlook even while knowing it is important. Art is their life, not survival.

Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in Us history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn’t in it for money. He poses as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member’s will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest. Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. When Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who sets out to expose his career as philanthropic forger, Landis is force to confront his false legacy.

It becomes clear that this story is bigger than its art world foundation when Landis opens up about his past, his family and his struggles with mental illness. Afflicted by schizophrenia and multiple behavioral disorders, Landis had been ostracized his whole life as someone struggling with those conditions. His elaborate thirty-year con had become a means to change all that, allowing him to regain control and finally be given respect. He found purpose in philanthropy, which was nothing short of an addiction.

The film starts out questioning authorship and authenticity, but what emerges is a much more intimate human story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose.

"Art and Craft" is being distributed in the U.S. by Oscilloscope Pictures, in Canada by Blue Ice Docs. International Sales are being handle by Autlook Film Sales.

Director/Producer/Cinematographer

Sam Cullman co-directed, shot and produced the Oscar®-nominated documentary, "If a Tree Falls"and was a Producer and Director of Photography on the Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning "The House I Live in." Previously, his camerawork appeared in dozens of documentaries including "King Con"and "Why We Fight."

Prior to his work in documentary, Cullman had his own background in the arts as a former printmaker and painter.

Director/Producer

Jennifer Grausman directed and produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, "Pressure Cooker."Grausman also co-produced "3 Backyards," and produced six short films. Previously she was the Manager of Exhibition and Film Funding at The Museum of Modern Art. Grausman grew up in the art world – her uncle is a sculptor and her aunt owned a gallery.

Co-Director/Editor

Mark Becker produced, directed and edited the Independent Spirit-nominated documentary "Romantico," and directed and edited the Emmy-nominated film "Pressure Cooker." He has edited several documentaries including "The Lost Boys of Sudan" and "Circo."

"Art and Craft" opens today at the Landmark’s Nuart Theater in West La, the film is also currently playing in NYC.

Art docs like last year's "Cutie and the Boxer" are a favorite among Academy voters. This year, voters will have "The Barefoot Artist," which has played only a few small festivals, to consider among an emerging slate of strong possibilities including Oscar bait music doc "Keep On Keepin' On." Paladin will release "Barefoot Artist" on December 5 at NY's IFC Film Center and in La on December 18 ahead of a national expansion. Here's the synopsis and trailer: A visually stunning and deeply emotional film, The Barefoot Artist chronicles the long and colorful life of Yeh, a Philadelphia-based artist who has committed herself to creating community-based art projects in some of the world's most troubled areas. Beginning with an unprecedented sculpture garden in the projects of North Philly that, eighteen years later, became known as “The Village of Arts and Humanities,” the film also shows Yeh in action in various far-flung...

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

The Unknown Known: documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a horror movie with a calm sociopath at its center [my review] [iTunes UK] The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool, but ultimately it’s just another xerox of Alien [iTunes UK] The Quiet Ones: there aren’t many outright scares here, and when they do come, they are curiously circumspect, but the old-fashioned Hammer Horror atmosphere is appealingly spooky [my review] [iTunes UK]

new to stream

Half of a Yellow Sun: oh what a lovely film! as romance and history, this is by turns funny and tragic, suspenseful and celebratory, and never less than solidly entertaining [my review] [iTunes UK]

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool,...

One of my favorite new films, Blue Ruin by director Jeremy Saulnier(Murder Party) is finally coming home to Blu-ray and DVD from Anchor Bay and Radius TWC. Blue Ruin is a slow-burning, gritty, brutal, and realistic revenge film, about a man, who after experiencing a traumatic family tragedy, lets his despair destroy his life. Living the life of a bum, he learns that the person responsible for the tragic event that took away his life, is being released from prison. The character of Dwight, played by Macon Blair, that also appeared in Saulnier’s Murder Party, packs up what little shit he has, and makes his way to the prison where the release is happening, so he can find a way to get the revenge he feels that he is owed. If you like revenge movies, especially those that are executed perfectly, then Blue Ruin is a film you...

It began as a Kickstarter campaign, raising $43,406, and now Alan Hicks' documentary Keep On Keepin' On has won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and been picked up by Radius-twc for distribution later this year. Produced by Quincy Jones you know there is going to be an Oscar push for this one, which comes with the following synopsis: In his melodic debut, Australian director Hicks spent four years following the charming and sometimes poignant mentorship between jazz-legend Clark Terry and blind piano prodigy, Justin Kaulflin, during a pivotal moment in each of their lives. At eighty-nine years old, 'Ct' has played alongside Duke Ellington and Count Basie; his pupils include Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, but his most unlikely friendship is with Justin, a 23-year-old with uncanny talent but debilitating nerves. As Justin prepares for a competition that could jumpstart his budding career, Ct's failing health threatens his own.

"Cinematography is kind of a hidden art, even though it's the most visible. It's mysterious," said film critic Eric Hynes in introducing Tribeca Talks Industry: Shooting the Film: An Exploration of Cinematography earlier this week. "You could attribute everything to cinematography...or nothing." Hynes was gathered with a select group of cinematographers with films at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, including Nick Bentgen ("Ballet 422," "Teenage"), Zachary Heinzerling ("Cutie and the Boxer"), Luke Geissbühler ("Match," "Beyond the Brick: A Lego Brickumentary") and Ben Kutchins ("Lucky Them") to discuss and demystify the art of cinematography -- as well as the technical side. Relying on clips from each filmmaker's work, Hynes led a discussion that ranged from filmmakers' training to how they like to collaborate with directors. Here are 4 highlights from the Masterclass: 1. So much of cinematography is about collaboration -- with the director, the actors and the crew. "I love my.

I always try to attend Ifp's Independent Film Week in NYC after Tiff Toronto. It is a great networking event, the projects are fine and the filmmakers come from all over the world. You should submit your project here and come to it!!

Independent Film Week in NYC runs September 14-18 2014

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced today it is currently seeking screenplays, documentary works-in-progress, and web series for its annual Independent Film Week Project Forum (September 14-18, 2014), the oldest and largest forum in the U.S. for the discovery of new projects in development and new voices on the independent scene.

The Project Forum is a meetings-driven forum connecting filmmakers with producers, agents, funders, distributors, broadcasters, sales agents, festival programmers, and more.

Now seeking applications in all sections: Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers (for writers and writer/directors at the script stage, and web series creators in development, production, and post-production looking to connect with producers, funders, agents, digital distributors, and streaming platforms),

No Borders International Co-Production Market (for established narrative producers with partial financing in place looking to connect with financiers, distributors, sales agents and international partners), and Spotlight on Documentaries (for documentary filmmakers in production or post-production looking to connect with financing partners, broadcasters, distributors, and film festival programmers).

Recent participants in Independent Film Week include After Tiller, Appropriate Behavior, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Cutie and the Boxer, Dinosaur 13, Fill the Void, Obvious Child, Our Nixon, Ping Pong Summer, Pariah, Rich Hill, Short Term 12, and many more.

Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers & No Borders

Deadline: May 2. Spotlight on Documentaries Deadlines: May 2/May 23. For more information go the the Ifp website at www.ifp.org.

About Ifp

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp, a new incubator space developed with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

Ifp represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 35-year history, Ifp has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, including Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.

About Independent Film Week

Independent Film Week is the destination for storytellers in all mediums to connect with industry and peers to further advance their projects in an environment that promotes community, growth, and career sustainability. Filmmakers, content creators, innovators, and audiences come out in force to experience first-hand the expanded opportunities Ifp has been working to provide the international film and media community.

Film Week encompasses the Filmmaker Conference, and the concurrent Project Forum that both showcase how great projects and creatives can connect with collaborators and audiences to make work that stands out in a crowded marketplace across multiple platforms and mediums.

The San Francisco Film Society has revealed the three winners of its 2014 Sffs Documentary Film Fund awards, which total more than $75,000 and support feature-length documentaries in post-production. Moby Longinotto’s “The Joneses,” Jason Zeldes's “Romeo Is Bleeding” and Andrew James's “Street Fighting Man” were each given funding to help push them towards completion. (More details on each project below.)Previous winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s Oscar nominated “Cutie and the Boxer,” Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Sundance Special Jury Prize winner “American Promise” and Shaul Schwarz’s strongly reviewed 2013 Sundance entry “Narco Cultura.” 2014 Documentary Film Fund Winners:The Joneses — Moby Longinotto, director and Aviva Wishnow, producer — $30,627The Joneses is a portrait of Jheri, a 73-year-old transgender trailer park matriarch, who lives in bible belt Mississippi. Reconciled with her family after years of estrangement, and now living with two of her sons,...

Oscar 2014 winners and nominees (photo: Oscar winners Lupita Nyong’o and Jared Leto chat at the 2014 Oscar ceremony) Best Picture: American Hustle, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon; Captain Phillips, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca; Dallas Buyers Club, Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter; Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman; Her, Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay; Nebraska, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa; Philomena, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward; 12 Years a Slave, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Anthony Katagas; The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, Emma Tillinger Koskoff. Best Foreign Language Film: The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium; The Great Beauty, Italy; The Hunt, Denmark; The Missing Picture, Cambodia; Omar, Palestine. Best Actress: Amy Adams, American Hustle; Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine; Sandra Bullock, Gravity; Judi Dench, Philomena; Meryl Streep, August: Osage County. Best Actor: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Bruce Dern, Nebraska; Leonardo DiCaprio,...

Alfonso Cuarón's space thriller takes seven awards, but loses out to 12 Years a Slave for best picture

• How the night unfolded

• Full list of winners

Gravity may be set in space, but it achieved a landslide at the 86th Academy Awards, taking seven Oscars, while 12 Years a Slave went home with three.

Through its UK producer, David Heyman, Gravity qualifies as a British film, and its Oscar wins come in the wake of the best British film award at the Bafta ceremony. Amanda Nevill, CEO of the BFI, the UK's lead film agency said: "We join the whole British film industry in congratulating Steve McQueen on the awards for his remarkable and important film, 12 Years A Slave, and Alfonso Cuarón whose astonishing film, Gravity was made right here in the UK. Our industry continues to punch above its weight, with exceptional creative talent and world-leading practitioners, infrastructure and facilities...