John Sayles has made a career out of writing and directing some of the finest ensemble films of all time, movies like “Matewan,” “Eight Men Out,” and “Sunshine State” that create rich tapestries of American life filled with intimate detail and epic sweep. One of his most entertaining and sophisticated works, the 1996 contemporary Western “Lone Star,” is newly available in 4K and Blu-ray editions from Criterion, and it has, like most of Sayles’ movies, only improved with age. As a Texas sheriff investigates an old murder, the film becomes timeless and specifically of its era (particularly in the border crossing scenes conceived and shot before the wall that eventually went up in Sayles’ location), a complex consideration of cultural conflicts and generational divides that seem hardwired into the American consciousness.
It’s a great American epic, yet like all of the director’s films it was shot on a modest...
It’s a great American epic, yet like all of the director’s films it was shot on a modest...
- 1/16/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Steve McQueen Erases Al Jolson’s Blackface in New Film at L.A.’s Newly Opened Marian Goodman Gallery
Long-time New York and Paris gallery Marian Goodman has opened in Los Angeles with a show of director and artist Steve McQueen’s short film, Sunshine State. Shown on two back-to-back screens in a capacious room, the work finds McQueen training his artistic vision on the history of blackface in Hollywood. The 30-minute piece includes footage of the late actor Al Jolson in blackface in the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, considered the first feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue and the winner of an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
McQueen included the scenes from The Jazz Singer in Sunshine State after the movie’s copyright expired on Jan. 1, 2023. “It’s been about 20 years that I’ve wanted to work with this material,” McQueen told AnOther Magazine at International Film Festival Rotterdam where Sunshine State premiered in January. “I wanted to work with it because I wanted to erase Al Jolson.
McQueen included the scenes from The Jazz Singer in Sunshine State after the movie’s copyright expired on Jan. 1, 2023. “It’s been about 20 years that I’ve wanted to work with this material,” McQueen told AnOther Magazine at International Film Festival Rotterdam where Sunshine State premiered in January. “I wanted to work with it because I wanted to erase Al Jolson.
- 10/28/2023
- by Degen Pener
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Angela Bassett (Photo Credit: D’Andre Michael)
Two-time Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett is finally getting her much-deserved Oscar. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be honoring Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, and editor Carol Littleton with the Academy’s Honorary Awards during the Governors Awards taking place in November 2023.
Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter will be recognized with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” stated Academy President Janet Yang. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett is finally getting her much-deserved Oscar. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be honoring Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, and editor Carol Littleton with the Academy’s Honorary Awards during the Governors Awards taking place in November 2023.
Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter will be recognized with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” stated Academy President Janet Yang. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her.
- 6/26/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
The newest Academy Award winners have been announced.
Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, and veteran film editor Carol Littleton have been voted Honorary Oscars, and the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. All will be presented on Saturday, November 18, during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 14th annual Governors Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
The three Honorary winners have all danced with Oscar before. Brooks won for his Original Screenplay for The Producers in 1968. Littleton received her sole previous nomination for editing E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in 1982. Bassett, coming off a Best Supporting Actress nomination this year for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, also was a Best Actress nominee 30 years ago for her portrayal of Tina Turner in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It.
Satter’s Hersholt award represents the second Sundance-related special Academy Award after creator and founder...
Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, and veteran film editor Carol Littleton have been voted Honorary Oscars, and the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. All will be presented on Saturday, November 18, during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 14th annual Governors Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
The three Honorary winners have all danced with Oscar before. Brooks won for his Original Screenplay for The Producers in 1968. Littleton received her sole previous nomination for editing E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in 1982. Bassett, coming off a Best Supporting Actress nomination this year for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, also was a Best Actress nominee 30 years ago for her portrayal of Tina Turner in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It.
Satter’s Hersholt award represents the second Sundance-related special Academy Award after creator and founder...
- 6/26/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
International attendees point to IFFR’s sense of community, inclusivity – and wide sweep of films.
“The one word that keeps springing back to mind is: finally,” says International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) director Vanja Kaludjercic, with the first in-person festival since the pandemic drawing to a close yesterday (Feburary 5) after 97 feature films world premiered, 2,195 film professionals attended from 92 countries and 11 days of sold-out screenings.
“Finally, we’re back in person after a forced three-year hiatus. Finally, we get to see audiences welcoming us again with such warmth and roaring enthusiasm,” Kaludjercic says. “And finally, we can welcome the filmmakers who...
“The one word that keeps springing back to mind is: finally,” says International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) director Vanja Kaludjercic, with the first in-person festival since the pandemic drawing to a close yesterday (Feburary 5) after 97 feature films world premiered, 2,195 film professionals attended from 92 countries and 11 days of sold-out screenings.
“Finally, we’re back in person after a forced three-year hiatus. Finally, we get to see audiences welcoming us again with such warmth and roaring enthusiasm,” Kaludjercic says. “And finally, we can welcome the filmmakers who...
- 2/6/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Steve McQueen has shared his belief that his Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave would never have been made if Barack Obama wasn’t the president.
The filmmaker and artist directed the 2013 Best Picture winner, based on the true account of Solomon Northup, a Black man who was born free but was captured and sold into slavery in Louisiana in 1841. He was released 12 years later.
For its strong performance and its portrayal of the brutal experiences of enslaved people, the film and McQueen received widespread praise.
Lupita Nyong’o received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Patsey, an enslaved woman.
Despite 12 Years a Slave’s successes, McQueen believes that without President Obama being in office, and the specific cultural and social moment that it represented, the film would not have had received essential funding.
Speaking at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on Saturday (28 January), the Small Axe creator recalled...
The filmmaker and artist directed the 2013 Best Picture winner, based on the true account of Solomon Northup, a Black man who was born free but was captured and sold into slavery in Louisiana in 1841. He was released 12 years later.
For its strong performance and its portrayal of the brutal experiences of enslaved people, the film and McQueen received widespread praise.
Lupita Nyong’o received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Patsey, an enslaved woman.
Despite 12 Years a Slave’s successes, McQueen believes that without President Obama being in office, and the specific cultural and social moment that it represented, the film would not have had received essential funding.
Speaking at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on Saturday (28 January), the Small Axe creator recalled...
- 1/29/2023
- by Nicole Vassell
- The Independent - Film
Celebrated British filmmaker Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning “12 Years A Slave” was released almost a century after D W Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation”, the first film ever to be screened at the White House, writes ‘Variety’. McQueen’s film, however, was not shown at the US President’s official residence. The director, who’s also a Camera d’Or winner for his 2008 film “Hunger”, spoke about it at an in-conversation event at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
“It was just after that situation with Skip Gates,” said McQueen, recalling, according to ‘Variety’, the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates by Sergeant James Crowley. It was a suspected case of racial profiling that stirred a major controversy for then-President Barack Obama, who was accused of having allegedly taken sides by going public with his view that the local police department had acted “stupidly”.
“So,...
“It was just after that situation with Skip Gates,” said McQueen, recalling, according to ‘Variety’, the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates by Sergeant James Crowley. It was a suspected case of racial profiling that stirred a major controversy for then-President Barack Obama, who was accused of having allegedly taken sides by going public with his view that the local police department had acted “stupidly”.
“So,...
- 1/29/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave” was released almost a century after D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” the first film ever to be screened at the White House. McQueen’s film, however, was not shown at the U.S. President’s official residence. The British director spoke Saturday about this issue while at an in-conversation event at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
“It was just after that situation with Skip Gates,” said McQueen, referring to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates by Sergeant James Crowley, a suspected case of racial profiling that stirred great controversy for then-President Barack Obama, who was alleged to have taken sides after publicly stating the local police department had acted “stupidly.” “So, at that time, everything Obama was doing was being scrutinized,” continued the director, “and that was the theory of why ‘12 Years a Slave’ was...
“It was just after that situation with Skip Gates,” said McQueen, referring to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates by Sergeant James Crowley, a suspected case of racial profiling that stirred great controversy for then-President Barack Obama, who was alleged to have taken sides after publicly stating the local police department had acted “stupidly.” “So, at that time, everything Obama was doing was being scrutinized,” continued the director, “and that was the theory of why ‘12 Years a Slave’ was...
- 1/29/2023
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
One reason that makes Angela Bassett‘s Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” so unique is that it’s the first-ever such notice for a Marvel Cinematic Universe performance. Another reason is that it marks exactly 29 years since Bassett last contended at the 1994 Academy Awards. Talk about a long time coming.
Three decades ago, Bassett was nominated in Best Actress for her performance as Tina Turner in the biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” a role that won her a Golden Globe. On Oscar night, Al Pacino handed over the trophy to Holly Hunter (“The Piano”), leaving co-nominees Bassett, Stockard Channing (“Six Degrees of Separation”), Emma Thompson (“The Remains of the Day”) and Debra Winger (“Shadowlands”) in her dust. Watch the Oscars flashback video above.
See 2023 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories
“I’m so overwhelmed to be with that group...
Three decades ago, Bassett was nominated in Best Actress for her performance as Tina Turner in the biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” a role that won her a Golden Globe. On Oscar night, Al Pacino handed over the trophy to Holly Hunter (“The Piano”), leaving co-nominees Bassett, Stockard Channing (“Six Degrees of Separation”), Emma Thompson (“The Remains of the Day”) and Debra Winger (“Shadowlands”) in her dust. Watch the Oscars flashback video above.
See 2023 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories
“I’m so overwhelmed to be with that group...
- 1/25/2023
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
The wait is over: Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), set to kick off on Jan. 25, is returning for its first full on-site edition in three years.
“We are finally able to present the reshaped program as it was intended: in cinemas across Rotterdam. We find it incredibly encouraging to see that the number of accredited guests is similar to pre-covid editions,” says festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
Alongside IFFR’s Tiger competition strand, which celebrates innovative and adventurous up-and-coming filmmakers, there are retrospectives of Judit Elek, Stanya Kahn, Arc and Japanese animator Yuasa Masaaki, as well as “Sunshine State,” Steve McQueen’s much-anticipated artwork, originally commissioned for the festival’s 50th anniversary back in 2021.
“It’s great to see that this extra time has allowed it to evolve into what it is today: a monumental two-channel video projection that will surely move all those who witness it,” she adds. “With this commission,...
“We are finally able to present the reshaped program as it was intended: in cinemas across Rotterdam. We find it incredibly encouraging to see that the number of accredited guests is similar to pre-covid editions,” says festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
Alongside IFFR’s Tiger competition strand, which celebrates innovative and adventurous up-and-coming filmmakers, there are retrospectives of Judit Elek, Stanya Kahn, Arc and Japanese animator Yuasa Masaaki, as well as “Sunshine State,” Steve McQueen’s much-anticipated artwork, originally commissioned for the festival’s 50th anniversary back in 2021.
“It’s great to see that this extra time has allowed it to evolve into what it is today: a monumental two-channel video projection that will surely move all those who witness it,” she adds. “With this commission,...
- 1/25/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Spoiler Alert: This article contains details of tonight’s Better Call Saul series finale
“As soon as we land, I want you to tell the other side that I’ve got more to trade,” a busted but still hustling Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) tells his lawyer on a flight from Nebraska to New Mexico in tonight’s Better Call Saul series finale. “I just remembered something that’ll make their toes curl,” the shameless lawyer born Jimmy McGill aka Gene Takavic asserts in the “Saul Gone” episode.
‘Better Call Saul’ Characters’ Fates Revealed In Series Finale – Photo Gallery
Toes do curl, plea deals are struck, and hard truths are certainly revealed in the finale, directed and written by Peter Gould, that brings Bcs’ increasingly acclaimed six-season run on AMC to an end Monday.
Having carved out its own distinct path since its 2015 debut, the Breaking Bad prequel from Gould and...
“As soon as we land, I want you to tell the other side that I’ve got more to trade,” a busted but still hustling Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) tells his lawyer on a flight from Nebraska to New Mexico in tonight’s Better Call Saul series finale. “I just remembered something that’ll make their toes curl,” the shameless lawyer born Jimmy McGill aka Gene Takavic asserts in the “Saul Gone” episode.
‘Better Call Saul’ Characters’ Fates Revealed In Series Finale – Photo Gallery
Toes do curl, plea deals are struck, and hard truths are certainly revealed in the finale, directed and written by Peter Gould, that brings Bcs’ increasingly acclaimed six-season run on AMC to an end Monday.
Having carved out its own distinct path since its 2015 debut, the Breaking Bad prequel from Gould and...
- 8/16/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Mary Alice, an Emmy and Tony Award winner best known to TV viewers for her roles in A Different World and I’ll Fly Away, died on July 27in New York City, the NYPD has reported.
Alice died of natural causes, NPR reports; the actress’ precise, eightysomething age was at press time uncertain.
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Alice’s TV career began in the 1970s,...
Alice died of natural causes, NPR reports; the actress’ precise, eightysomething age was at press time uncertain.
More from TVLineTVLine Items: Max Headroom Reboot, Coda Star's Disney+ Series and MoreWas Westworld Lunch Delicious? Was Harley Quinn Porno a Fortress First? Glad Big Brother Fed You? And More Qs!TVLine Items: Locke & Key Trailer, Phylicia Rashad to Good Fight and More
Alice’s TV career began in the 1970s,...
- 7/28/2022
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
Mary Alice, an Emmy-winning actor for I’ll Fly Away and a Tony winner for her performance in 1987’s Broadway production of August Wilson’s Fences, died yesterday in New York City.
Her age has been variously reported as 80, 84 and 86. Her death was confirmed to Deadline by the New York Police Department. No additional details were immediately available.
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery
“A shoulder we all stood on,” tweeted actor Colman Domingo today.
A prolific character actor on screen and stage, and a pioneer in the representation of Black actors on the Off Broadway and Broadway scenes, Alice is perhaps most widely known to TV audiences for her two-season run as a main character on NBC’s Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, in which she played dorm director Leticia “Lettie” Bostic. In 2003, she featured prominently in The Matrix Revolutions, portraying The Oracle, who imparts words of wisdom to Keanu Reeves’ Neo.
Her age has been variously reported as 80, 84 and 86. Her death was confirmed to Deadline by the New York Police Department. No additional details were immediately available.
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery
“A shoulder we all stood on,” tweeted actor Colman Domingo today.
A prolific character actor on screen and stage, and a pioneer in the representation of Black actors on the Off Broadway and Broadway scenes, Alice is perhaps most widely known to TV audiences for her two-season run as a main character on NBC’s Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, in which she played dorm director Leticia “Lettie” Bostic. In 2003, she featured prominently in The Matrix Revolutions, portraying The Oracle, who imparts words of wisdom to Keanu Reeves’ Neo.
- 7/28/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Emmy-winning actress Mary Alice, known for her roles as Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC‘s “A Different World” and as Effie Williams in the 1976 musical drama “Sparkle,” died Wednesday in New York City, according to the NYPD. Her birth year had been reported both as 1936 and 1941 in various sources.
In “The Matrix Revolutions,” she played the Oracle and also played the role in the video game “Enter the Matrix.”
She appeared in “A Different World” for two seasons, and also played Ellie Grant Hubbard on “All My Children” in the 1980s.
In films, she appeared in “Malcolm X,” “The Inkwell,” “Down in the Delta,” “Beat Street,” “To Sleep With Anger,” “Awakenings,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Sunshine State,” among many others.
Born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Miss., she pursued acting at a very early age, starting her stage career in her hometown. After a brief stint as an elementary school teacher,...
In “The Matrix Revolutions,” she played the Oracle and also played the role in the video game “Enter the Matrix.”
She appeared in “A Different World” for two seasons, and also played Ellie Grant Hubbard on “All My Children” in the 1980s.
In films, she appeared in “Malcolm X,” “The Inkwell,” “Down in the Delta,” “Beat Street,” “To Sleep With Anger,” “Awakenings,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Sunshine State,” among many others.
Born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Miss., she pursued acting at a very early age, starting her stage career in her hometown. After a brief stint as an elementary school teacher,...
- 7/28/2022
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
“I feel heavy,” Chris Carraba sings on “Burning Heart,” the first song on All the Truth That I Can Tell, the first new Dashboard Confessional album in four years. We’re right there with you, man.
For most of the 21st century, Carraba, the artist concurrently known as Dashboard Confessional, pretty well embodied the idea of “emo.” Older punks might take issue with this, but for fans perhaps not even alive in ‘85, Dashboard’s deadly earnest version of that amorphous genre tag has meant everything from college-cafe acoustic tunes (emo as shout-along folk,...
For most of the 21st century, Carraba, the artist concurrently known as Dashboard Confessional, pretty well embodied the idea of “emo.” Older punks might take issue with this, but for fans perhaps not even alive in ‘85, Dashboard’s deadly earnest version of that amorphous genre tag has meant everything from college-cafe acoustic tunes (emo as shout-along folk,...
- 2/24/2022
- by Joe Gross
- Rollingstone.com
Being in control of what they need to say in order accomplish their personal and professional goals is a vital asset for both parents and filmmakers. That’s certainly the case for helmer Sasha Levinson, a single mother who took the time during the beginning of Covid-19 in 2020 to pursue her ultimate dream of making […]
The post 2022 Slamdance Film Festival: Filmmaker Sasha Levinson Bonds with Her Daughter in Sylvie of the Sunshine State Exclusive Clip appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post 2022 Slamdance Film Festival: Filmmaker Sasha Levinson Bonds with Her Daughter in Sylvie of the Sunshine State Exclusive Clip appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 2/5/2022
- by Karen Benardello
- ShockYa
The 28th Slamdance Film Festival today announced its winners, with the Audience Awards going to The Civil Dead, directed by Clay Tatum, for Narrative Feature; Iron Family, directed by Patrick Longstreth winning the Audience Award for Documentary Feature and The Ember Knight Show: “Getting Mad” directed by Bobby McCoy taking home the Audience Award in the Episodes subcategory.
The Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize was awarded to Hannah Ha Ha (USA) directed by Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky. A statement from the jury called it “a beautiful film in the vein of the American working-class cinema from the ’70s and ’80s…chosen for its incredible lead actor and its sensitive portrayal of the quiet eradication of a community by powers beyond their control.”
The Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize was awarded to director Olivier Bernier’s Forget Me Not which the jury said used “intimate moments in a family’s...
The Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize was awarded to Hannah Ha Ha (USA) directed by Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky. A statement from the jury called it “a beautiful film in the vein of the American working-class cinema from the ’70s and ’80s…chosen for its incredible lead actor and its sensitive portrayal of the quiet eradication of a community by powers beyond their control.”
The Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize was awarded to director Olivier Bernier’s Forget Me Not which the jury said used “intimate moments in a family’s...
- 2/4/2022
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
All winners will continue to play on Slamdance Channel until midnight February 6.
Hannah Ha Ha directed by Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky earned the Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize, while the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Olivier Bernier’s Forget Me Not.
In other awards announced on Friday (4) the 2022 Slamdance Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Straighten Up And Fly Right by Steven Tanenbaum and Kristen Abate and the George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award, voted on by filmmakers and given to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, went to Sasha Levinson,...
Hannah Ha Ha directed by Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky earned the Narrative Feature Grand Jury prize, while the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Olivier Bernier’s Forget Me Not.
In other awards announced on Friday (4) the 2022 Slamdance Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Straighten Up And Fly Right by Steven Tanenbaum and Kristen Abate and the George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award, voted on by filmmakers and given to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, went to Sasha Levinson,...
- 2/4/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Forced online once again – this time due to the Omicron wave – International Film Festival Rotterdam is still going to surprise the audience, assures festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, ready to celebrate its 51st edition. The event will open with Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please” on Jan. 26.
“That’s the idea. To surprise, but not just for the sake of surprising,” she says. “When I first started coming here, IFFR could always blow my mind like that; show me what cinema can be. Something that can feel like an unexpected choice for IFFR is, in fact, inspired by its freedom.”
Remembering the past is crucial for Kaludjercic, as she already pointed out when announcing this year’s streamlined lineup. “This is what these last three editions were very much about,” she notes, also mentioning “25 Encounters”: a new initiative comprising a selection of films, which will be available to the audience from Feb.
“That’s the idea. To surprise, but not just for the sake of surprising,” she says. “When I first started coming here, IFFR could always blow my mind like that; show me what cinema can be. Something that can feel like an unexpected choice for IFFR is, in fact, inspired by its freedom.”
Remembering the past is crucial for Kaludjercic, as she already pointed out when announcing this year’s streamlined lineup. “This is what these last three editions were very much about,” she notes, also mentioning “25 Encounters”: a new initiative comprising a selection of films, which will be available to the audience from Feb.
- 1/25/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and “Kung Fu Zohra” from Mabrouk El Mechri are among the lineup at International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) 51st edition.
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
- 1/7/2022
- by K.J. Yossman and Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin Pushing On Despite Rotterdam Online Move
The Berlin International Film Festival is still planned to take place in person after the Dutch lockdown forced the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) to move online for a second consecutive year. A spokesperson for Berlin confirmed to Deadline that the event is still due to take place in person in February. Fresh restrictions were introduced in Germany today, including a limit of private gatherings among vaccinated people to a maximum of 10. The news comes as late January event IFFR is moved online, just days after the government in the Netherlands announced a nationwide lockdown due to concerns over the Omicron variant, with all non-essential shops and cultural venues staying closed for at least a month. All sessions, which include the unveiling of Steve McQueen’s Sunshine State installation, will take place online instead from late January until early February. “The festival acknowledges...
The Berlin International Film Festival is still planned to take place in person after the Dutch lockdown forced the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) to move online for a second consecutive year. A spokesperson for Berlin confirmed to Deadline that the event is still due to take place in person in February. Fresh restrictions were introduced in Germany today, including a limit of private gatherings among vaccinated people to a maximum of 10. The news comes as late January event IFFR is moved online, just days after the government in the Netherlands announced a nationwide lockdown due to concerns over the Omicron variant, with all non-essential shops and cultural venues staying closed for at least a month. All sessions, which include the unveiling of Steve McQueen’s Sunshine State installation, will take place online instead from late January until early February. “The festival acknowledges...
- 12/22/2021
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has been allowed to maintain its 2022 edition on-site by the Dutch government. The upcoming edition will take place Jan. 26 to Feb. 6.
The festival announced last week that its popular industry events, CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, were being switched to online due to the surge of Covid-19 cases in the Netherlands. The government announced today that the Netherlands will extend Covid-19 restrictions through the end of the year, including the closure of primary schools a week before the Christmas holidays.
Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said the festival has adapted its protocol “once again to fit the restrictions in place in the Netherlands.”
“We are happy to confirm the festival will take place physically, allowing us to give the stage to all the outstanding filmmakers who have trusted us to screen their work,” Kaludjercic said.
IFFR will kick off with the world premiere of Mijke de Jong...
The festival announced last week that its popular industry events, CineMart and Rotterdam Lab, were being switched to online due to the surge of Covid-19 cases in the Netherlands. The government announced today that the Netherlands will extend Covid-19 restrictions through the end of the year, including the closure of primary schools a week before the Christmas holidays.
Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said the festival has adapted its protocol “once again to fit the restrictions in place in the Netherlands.”
“We are happy to confirm the festival will take place physically, allowing us to give the stage to all the outstanding filmmakers who have trusted us to screen their work,” Kaludjercic said.
IFFR will kick off with the world premiere of Mijke de Jong...
- 12/15/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Steve McQueen and his installation "Year 3" at Tate Britain. Steve McQueen will be unveiling a new installation, “Sunshine State,” at the International film festival Rotterdam as part of its Art Directions section, which is dedicated to "daring films, installations, exhibitions and live performance." This is McQueen's first major commission since "Year 3," which was exhibited at Tate Britain in 2019. Martin Scorsese has set his eyes on his next project with Apple: a biopic about the Grateful Dead, starring Jonah Hill as frontman Jerry Garcia. As Variety points out, Scorsese did executive produce a 2017 documentary series about the band entitled Long Strange Trip. For that series, he described the Grateful Dead as "more than just a band." Hill and Scorsese previously worked together on Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and a Coca-Cola ad for last year's Super Bowl.
- 11/26/2021
- MUBI
Next year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will be home to a new art installation from Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen.
Titled Sunshine State, the installation was commissioned by the festival and will see McQueen fill the event’s central venue, the Kunsthal, with both sound and image. It will open to the public on January 27 and will run until February 13.
This is the filmmaker/artist’s first new installation since his major commission Year 3 at Tate Britain in 2019.
This year’s IFFR will also feature artistic performances from Angolan multidisciplinary artist Kiluanji Kia Henda and Taiwanese artists Su Hui-Yu and Cheng Hsien-Yu.
“We are beyond thrilled to announce the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s latest installation during the next edition of IFFR,” said Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic. “McQueen is a visual artist and celebrated filmmaker who is known for his powerful and uncompromising vision and we are proud...
Titled Sunshine State, the installation was commissioned by the festival and will see McQueen fill the event’s central venue, the Kunsthal, with both sound and image. It will open to the public on January 27 and will run until February 13.
This is the filmmaker/artist’s first new installation since his major commission Year 3 at Tate Britain in 2019.
This year’s IFFR will also feature artistic performances from Angolan multidisciplinary artist Kiluanji Kia Henda and Taiwanese artists Su Hui-Yu and Cheng Hsien-Yu.
“We are beyond thrilled to announce the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s latest installation during the next edition of IFFR,” said Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic. “McQueen is a visual artist and celebrated filmmaker who is known for his powerful and uncompromising vision and we are proud...
- 11/24/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar-winning filmmaker and Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen is set to unveil his new installation, “Sunshine State,” at the International film festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The installation will be presented at the Dutch landmark Kunsthal as part of Rotterdam’s Art Directions, a multi-disciplinary section dedicated to daring films, installations, exhibitions and live performance. Commissioned by IFFR, “Sunshine State” marks McQueen’s first major commission since “Year 3,” which bowed at Tate Britain in 2019.
“We are beyond thrilled to announce the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s latest installation during the next edition of IFFR,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
“McQueen is a visual artist and celebrated filmmaker who is known for his powerful and uncompromising vision and we are proud to offer a broad audience the opportunity to experience this newly commissioned work at Rotterdam’s cultural landmark Kunsthal,” Kaludjercic added. The executive said the festival will “celebrate contemporary cinema and...
The installation will be presented at the Dutch landmark Kunsthal as part of Rotterdam’s Art Directions, a multi-disciplinary section dedicated to daring films, installations, exhibitions and live performance. Commissioned by IFFR, “Sunshine State” marks McQueen’s first major commission since “Year 3,” which bowed at Tate Britain in 2019.
“We are beyond thrilled to announce the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s latest installation during the next edition of IFFR,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
“McQueen is a visual artist and celebrated filmmaker who is known for his powerful and uncompromising vision and we are proud to offer a broad audience the opportunity to experience this newly commissioned work at Rotterdam’s cultural landmark Kunsthal,” Kaludjercic added. The executive said the festival will “celebrate contemporary cinema and...
- 11/24/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, screening at this year's event
The annual Folk Film Gathering is returning for another year, with an exciting online programme featuring film, music and conversations between makers of the two, all wrapped around the theme of 'Solidarity'.
Run by Transgressive North's Mike Brogan and Jamie Chambers, whose film Blackbird was nominated for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Michael Powell award in 2013, the festival retains its focus on, and championing of, folk culture from around the globe.
The 2021 edition, running between 25 June and 2 July, will be entirely online, and will feature live contributions from a series of world-leading filmmaking including John Sayles, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Gaston Kaboré, Zacharius Kunuk, Pat Collins (Ireland;...
The annual Folk Film Gathering is returning for another year, with an exciting online programme featuring film, music and conversations between makers of the two, all wrapped around the theme of 'Solidarity'.
Run by Transgressive North's Mike Brogan and Jamie Chambers, whose film Blackbird was nominated for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Michael Powell award in 2013, the festival retains its focus on, and championing of, folk culture from around the globe.
The 2021 edition, running between 25 June and 2 July, will be entirely online, and will feature live contributions from a series of world-leading filmmaking including John Sayles, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Gaston Kaboré, Zacharius Kunuk, Pat Collins (Ireland;...
- 6/16/2021
- by Robert Munro
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With Schitt's Creek approaching its sixth and final season, Pop TV is searching for another quirky comedy to transport its viewers -- right to the couch. Enter the Florida Girls TV show. Does this new Sunshine State slice-of-life comedy have what it takes to draw in the summertime audience? Will Florida Girls be cancelled or renewed for season two? Stay tuned. *Status update below.
A Pop sitcom, Florida Girls comes from creator Laura Chinn, who also stars with Melanie Field, Laci Mosley, and Patty Guggenheim. It centers on four women who get slapped in the face by their lackluster lives when their one driven friend leaves town in pursuit of her dreams. Shelby (Chinn), Kaitlin (Field), Jayla (Mosley), and Erica (Guggenheim) make quite the motley crew. Still, they stick together as they try to handle whatever life throws at them, while they eke out...
A Pop sitcom, Florida Girls comes from creator Laura Chinn, who also stars with Melanie Field, Laci Mosley, and Patty Guggenheim. It centers on four women who get slapped in the face by their lackluster lives when their one driven friend leaves town in pursuit of her dreams. Shelby (Chinn), Kaitlin (Field), Jayla (Mosley), and Erica (Guggenheim) make quite the motley crew. Still, they stick together as they try to handle whatever life throws at them, while they eke out...
- 10/7/2019
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this new episode of The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we examine movies from established movie stars that have flopped at the box office, been forgotten by time, or remain hidden gems. These aren’t the films that made them famous or kept them famous. These are the other ones.
From strong early work in masterpieces like Boyz n The Hood and Malcolm X to her recent work in Netflix’s Otherhood and Fox’s television show 9-1-1, Angela Bassett has done it all. Here we focus on Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn, Walter Hill (er Thomas Lee)’s Supernova and John Sayles’ Sunshine State. It’s an eclectic foursome that reflects Bassett’s dynamic range.
Other digressions include Eddie Murphy blaming the failure of Vampire in Brooklyn on his wig and Angie confidently declaring that she...
From strong early work in masterpieces like Boyz n The Hood and Malcolm X to her recent work in Netflix’s Otherhood and Fox’s television show 9-1-1, Angela Bassett has done it all. Here we focus on Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn, Walter Hill (er Thomas Lee)’s Supernova and John Sayles’ Sunshine State. It’s an eclectic foursome that reflects Bassett’s dynamic range.
Other digressions include Eddie Murphy blaming the failure of Vampire in Brooklyn on his wig and Angie confidently declaring that she...
- 9/19/2019
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Like its protagonist, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” is something of an underdog.
The journey to bring it to the public was one full of ups and downs. Originally developed for AMC, the show ended up sold to YouTube Premium. During the process, head of TriStar Television Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, who was instrumental in developing the show, unexpectedly passed away (in March 2018), while series star and executive producer Kirsten Dunst got pregnant and had her son (in May 2018). There were murmurings that it would launch on YouTube earlier this year, but it never materialized there, and then in June, Showtime announced it had acquired the 10-episode one-hour series. From there, it was a fast turn-around to get the show ready to launch on the premium cabler in August. Although the show has a linear premiere date of Aug. 25, true to form for the network, it dropped the first...
The journey to bring it to the public was one full of ups and downs. Originally developed for AMC, the show ended up sold to YouTube Premium. During the process, head of TriStar Television Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, who was instrumental in developing the show, unexpectedly passed away (in March 2018), while series star and executive producer Kirsten Dunst got pregnant and had her son (in May 2018). There were murmurings that it would launch on YouTube earlier this year, but it never materialized there, and then in June, Showtime announced it had acquired the 10-episode one-hour series. From there, it was a fast turn-around to get the show ready to launch on the premium cabler in August. Although the show has a linear premiere date of Aug. 25, true to form for the network, it dropped the first...
- 8/23/2019
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
What’s on TV in August? How about a women-of-color sketch-comedy showcase; deep-dive retrospectives of hit machine Motown Records and the original Woodstock concert; two HBO comedies about obscenely wealthy and highly dysfunctional families (though only one features slapstick baptism gags); a most peculiar reboot of a his show from the Nineties; and the gorgeously trashy Kirsten Dunst starring vehicle we’ve been waiting for. Here’s what to check out on le tube for the month. (You can check out the best streaming options here.)
BH90210 (Fox, Aug. 7th...
BH90210 (Fox, Aug. 7th...
- 7/31/2019
- by Charles Bramesco
- Rollingstone.com
Lionsgate is one of the top studios in the film industry. The company has been behind films such as the Sicario franchise, The Hunger Games, John Wick, and television shows such as Dear White People, Orange is the New Black and The Royals just to name a few. Lionsgate is always releasing new content and as well as bringing classics to in-home release. Here are just a few projects that are making their way to in-home release from Lionsgate.
Woman Walks Ahead – 8/28
Program Description
An all-star trio leads the way when Woman Walks Ahead arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital) and DVD August 28 from Lionsgate. Directed by Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor) and starring Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain, Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell, and Michael Greyeyes, who The New York Times lauds as “a miracle of intelligence and dignity,” the film tells the fictionalized account of the true-life events...
Woman Walks Ahead – 8/28
Program Description
An all-star trio leads the way when Woman Walks Ahead arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital) and DVD August 28 from Lionsgate. Directed by Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor) and starring Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain, Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell, and Michael Greyeyes, who The New York Times lauds as “a miracle of intelligence and dignity,” the film tells the fictionalized account of the true-life events...
- 7/10/2018
- by Chris Salce
- Age of the Nerd
Nicole Richie and Joel Madden were a blond duo yesterday as they arrived at Lax with Harlow. The trio was traveling to Miami where Nicole will promote House of Harlow and appear on Regis and Kelly - though Kelly will have to take a break from her poolside bikini time to tape the show. Joel even tweeted an adorable photo of Harlow once they got to Florida for their little family vacation. View 5 Photos › Bauer-Griffin Online...
- 5/5/2009
- by PopSugar
- Popsugar.com
TORONTO -- In Silver City, John Sayles, one of the brightest and most literate voices among American independents, has made one of his best and most important movies.
It's a cracking good detective yarn with hints of Chinatown and Raymond Chandler, and it's a sharp political lampoon of things we're all reading about on today's front pages. It's also a sociopolitical portrait of a state, in this case Colorado, along the lines of Sayles' Sunshine State (Florida) and Lone Star (Texas), in which picturesque environments are fractured by divisions of culture and class.
The film probably lacks the requisite sex-and-violence quotient to expand much beyond adult specialty venues. Distributor Newmarket Films certainly has a magic touch, however, with films that provoke controversy. Sayles' transparent portrait of a corrupt political dynasty that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bush family could provide that controversy.
A gubernatorial election in Colorado has Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), the prodding, ex-alcoholic, linguistically challenged son of the state's venerable senator (Michael Murphy) running for his first public office. His dad's campaign team is in complete charge, led by take-no-prisoners manager Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss).
While filming an environmental TV spot, Dickie's fishing line snags the battered corpse of a migrant Latino laborer. Chuck is paranoid enough to see this unsettling incident as a dirty political trick. So he hires Grace Seymour's Mary Kay Place) detective agency not only to investigate but also to lean on a trio of individuals on the Pilager family's enemies list. The assignment falls to Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), who belongs to the noble detective-fiction tradition of the disgraced yet white knight capable of moral outrage: Formerly an idealistic journalist, Danny once walked into a political setup and got fired when his newspaper was forced to print a retraction for a muckraking story.
Huston's performance expands as the story proceeds, his loose, rumpled physicality and restless forward drive expressing an impatience with slick, insincere answers and an overpowering need to solve this riddle.
Through his eyes, the viewer is sucked deep into a vortex of corruption that whirls around a large cast of shifty characters that includes the Pilager family; media magnate/developer Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson); lobbyist Chander Tyson (Billy Zane), who happens to date O'Brien's former lover, top political reporter Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello); and Mort Seymous (David Clennon), Grace's husband, who is desperate to develop the planned community of Silver City in and around an old mine where the Pilagers and Benteen once did business.
What makes Sayles' storytelling so compelling is his uncanny ability to capture the different speech cadences of each character. There is Roven's double-speak with coded phrase meaning different things to different folks; the candidate's inability to follow a single thought all the way through a complete sentence; double-edged words that drip with cynicism belonging to his estranged sister, Maddy (Daryl Hannah); Benteen's deliberate, Orwellian misuse of such words as "freedom" and "resources"; the hate-laced verbiage from right-wing radio jock Cliff Castleton (Miguel Ferrer); and Tyson's smooth counterpunching when confronted with clear contradictions.
Not that images are neglected. Veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler, in his fourth outing with Sayles, turns film noir on its head with sun-blasted city streets and high, cloudless skies in the seemingly innocent Colorado landscape.
SILVER CITY
Newmarket Films
Anarchists Convention
Credits:
Writer-director-editor: John Sayles
Producer: Maggie Renzi
Director of photography: Haskell Wexler
Production designer: Toby Corbett
Music: Mason Daring
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Cast:
Danny O'Brien: Danny Huston
Nora: Maria Bello
Dickie Pilager: Chris Cooper
Chuck Raven: Richard Dreyfuss
Sheriff Skaggs: James Gammon
Maddy: Daryl Hannah
Mitch: Tim Roth
Wes: Kris Kristofferson
Sen. Pilager: Michael Murphy
Chandler: Billy Zane
Grace: Mary Kay Place
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 128 minutes...
It's a cracking good detective yarn with hints of Chinatown and Raymond Chandler, and it's a sharp political lampoon of things we're all reading about on today's front pages. It's also a sociopolitical portrait of a state, in this case Colorado, along the lines of Sayles' Sunshine State (Florida) and Lone Star (Texas), in which picturesque environments are fractured by divisions of culture and class.
The film probably lacks the requisite sex-and-violence quotient to expand much beyond adult specialty venues. Distributor Newmarket Films certainly has a magic touch, however, with films that provoke controversy. Sayles' transparent portrait of a corrupt political dynasty that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bush family could provide that controversy.
A gubernatorial election in Colorado has Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper), the prodding, ex-alcoholic, linguistically challenged son of the state's venerable senator (Michael Murphy) running for his first public office. His dad's campaign team is in complete charge, led by take-no-prisoners manager Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss).
While filming an environmental TV spot, Dickie's fishing line snags the battered corpse of a migrant Latino laborer. Chuck is paranoid enough to see this unsettling incident as a dirty political trick. So he hires Grace Seymour's Mary Kay Place) detective agency not only to investigate but also to lean on a trio of individuals on the Pilager family's enemies list. The assignment falls to Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston), who belongs to the noble detective-fiction tradition of the disgraced yet white knight capable of moral outrage: Formerly an idealistic journalist, Danny once walked into a political setup and got fired when his newspaper was forced to print a retraction for a muckraking story.
Huston's performance expands as the story proceeds, his loose, rumpled physicality and restless forward drive expressing an impatience with slick, insincere answers and an overpowering need to solve this riddle.
Through his eyes, the viewer is sucked deep into a vortex of corruption that whirls around a large cast of shifty characters that includes the Pilager family; media magnate/developer Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson); lobbyist Chander Tyson (Billy Zane), who happens to date O'Brien's former lover, top political reporter Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello); and Mort Seymous (David Clennon), Grace's husband, who is desperate to develop the planned community of Silver City in and around an old mine where the Pilagers and Benteen once did business.
What makes Sayles' storytelling so compelling is his uncanny ability to capture the different speech cadences of each character. There is Roven's double-speak with coded phrase meaning different things to different folks; the candidate's inability to follow a single thought all the way through a complete sentence; double-edged words that drip with cynicism belonging to his estranged sister, Maddy (Daryl Hannah); Benteen's deliberate, Orwellian misuse of such words as "freedom" and "resources"; the hate-laced verbiage from right-wing radio jock Cliff Castleton (Miguel Ferrer); and Tyson's smooth counterpunching when confronted with clear contradictions.
Not that images are neglected. Veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler, in his fourth outing with Sayles, turns film noir on its head with sun-blasted city streets and high, cloudless skies in the seemingly innocent Colorado landscape.
SILVER CITY
Newmarket Films
Anarchists Convention
Credits:
Writer-director-editor: John Sayles
Producer: Maggie Renzi
Director of photography: Haskell Wexler
Production designer: Toby Corbett
Music: Mason Daring
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Cast:
Danny O'Brien: Danny Huston
Nora: Maria Bello
Dickie Pilager: Chris Cooper
Chuck Raven: Richard Dreyfuss
Sheriff Skaggs: James Gammon
Maddy: Daryl Hannah
Mitch: Tim Roth
Wes: Kris Kristofferson
Sen. Pilager: Michael Murphy
Chandler: Billy Zane
Grace: Mary Kay Place
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 128 minutes...
- 9/10/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson are among a list of celebrities donating their talents to an online effort to oust President George W Bush. Tuesday, independent political group Moveon.Org premieres 10 new anti-Bush advertisements created by award-winning filmmakers including John Sayles, the writer-director of Sunshine State and Eight Men Out, and Doug Liman, who directed Swingers and The Bourne Identity. Sayles teams up with actor Martin Sheen for one ad, while Liman reunites with Damon for another MoveOn spot. When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner uses Bush's own words to form the core of his 30-second commercial, which come from an April news conference where Bush struggled to answer whether he'd made mistakes as president. Some of the ads may never get airtime. While MoveOn spokeswoman Laura Dawn says the group has committed to a "sizable" national cable buy for its first ad, the rest may simply remain on the internet as a motivator for MoveOn members. Johansson lends her voice to an animated spot called "Who Profits?," which also features Kevin Bacon and Ed Asner.
- 8/25/2004
- WENN
Marc Blucas has landed the coveted male lead role opposite Katie Holmes in Regency Enterprises' romantic comedy First Daughter for helmer Forest Whitaker and producer John Davis. Shooting is scheduled to start in mid-May. Blucas, who just entered negotiations for the project, will segue into it after he wraps shooting the Walt Disney Co.'s The Alamo this week. First Daughter will see Holmes star as the daughter of the U.S. president who goes to college and falls into a fairy tale romance with a dashing graduate student (Blucas) only to find that her prince turns out to have a secret agenda. Along with Davis, Davis Entertainment president Wyck Godfrey is producing. At Regency, the project is being overseen by senior vp production Kara Francis for Regency president Sanford Panitch. Jessica Bendinger (The Truth About Charlie) wrote the most recent draft of the script. Regency is fully financing. Blucas, repped by Endeavor and Handprint Entertainment and attorney Steve Warren, next stars in the features I Capture the Castle and Prey for Rock & Roll. Past projects include The Sunshine State and We Were Soldiers.
- 5/15/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Three groups of critics . two on the East Coast, one on the West . recently chimed in with their picks for the year's best, and they were pretty much all over the map. Film critics in Los Angeles and Boston announced their choices over the weekend, with About Schmidt charming L.A. and the critics of Beantown making a surprise choice with Roman Polanski's The Pianist. The New York Film Critics Circle added to the obfuscation of any Oscar favorites by going with art house fave Far From Heaven. In fact, the New Yorkers bestowed five awards on Todd Haynes' ode to Douglas Sirk: Picture, Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid), Supporting Actress (Patricia Clarkson), Director, and Cinematography. In a surprise upset, Diane Lane was chosen best actress over Heaven's Julianne Moore for her performance in Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful; Daniel Day-Lewis walked away with the lead actor award for Gangs of New York. In Los Angeles, About Schmidt's Jack Nicholson tied with Day-Lewis for the lead actor award, while Julianne Moore picked up the Best Actress award for both Far From Heaven and The Hours. Other L.A. awards included Chris Cooper (supporting actor for Adaptation), Edie Falco (supporting actress for Sunshine State) and Pedro Almodovar (director for Talk To Her). Boston critics heaped awards on The Pianist's Adrien Brody (lead actor) and Roman Polanski (director), and made other surprise choices for lead actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal for Secretary), supporting actor (Alan Arkin for 13 Conversations About One Thing) and supporting actress (Toni Collette, named for both About a Boy and The Hours). All the critics did agree on one thing, though: Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien was named best foreign film by all three groups. --Prepared by IMDb staff...
- 12/17/2002
- WENN
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