The 2007 Sundance Film Festival opened with the premiere of director Brett Morgan’s animated feature “Chicago 10”. The director is an alumni of the festival and first appeared here with his biopic of legendary producer Robert Evans “The Kid Stays in the Picture”. This feature combines motion capture animation and archival footage to explore trial of 10 activists accused of inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The film looks into the heart of the sixties rad...
Tuesday, January 23----A slew of acquisition pick-ups have accelerated as the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final days before the announcement of its awards on Saturday evening. Talks of bidding wars, all night negotiation sessions and aggressive kibitzing have generated alot of buzz in indie circles, with more announcements expected in the coming days.
Among the prominent deals announced, Paramount Vantage, the newly formed specialty arm of Hollywood major Paramount Pictures, has pi...
Tuesday, January 23---The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) used the high profile media attention of the Sundance Film Festival to announce its nominees for the 18th GLAAD Media Awards, which honor film and television programs that have reinforced a position image of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. Hosting one of the liveliest events of the week at the Side Car Bar, the crowded festivities was the place to see and be seen for the many gay and gay-frie...
Friday, January 19----For the next 10 days, focus will be placed on the Sundance Film Festival. Experience the films, personalities, parties and ambience of Sundance via our Online Dailies coverage on website: Sundance Film Festival Coverage. New stories will again be posted to AWARDS WATCH starting the week of January 29th.
Sandy Mandelberger
Awards Watch Editor
...
Friday, January 19----For the next 10 days, focus will be placed on the Sundance Film Festival. Experience the films, personalities, parties and ambience of Sundance via our Online Dailies coverage on website: Sundance Film Festival Coverage. New stories will be posted to FILM NEW YORK starting the week of January 29th.
Sandy Mandelberger
Film New York Editor
...
Sundance Online Dailies Editor Sandy Mandelberger sat down with director Mike Cahill to discuss KING OF CALIFORNIA: one of the more anticipated big-name films that has its world premiere later this week in Sundance, a comedy drama about the often flinty relationship between a father and a daughter. The film stars Michael Douglas in one of the quirkiest performances of his long career, and Evan Rachel Wood, a fast rising star who made her mark a few years ago with the Sundance sleeper THIREEN (di...
A slew of acquisition pick-ups have accelerated as the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final days before the announcement of its awards on Saturday evening. Talks of bidding wars, all night negotiation sessions and aggressive kibitzing have generated alot of buzz in indie circles, with more announcements expected in the coming days.Among the prominent deals announced, Paramount Vantage, the newly formed specialty arm of Hollywood major Paramount Pictures, has picked up world wide rights to...
Despite my earlier declaration to "F*** The Parties", I fell victim to party fever as much as the next guy yesterday, but all were very pleasant affairs that were great networking opportunities and a chance to see old friends and colleagues. Things began at 11am at the Cafe Brilliant on Main Street, where the International Film Festival Summit held an informal get-together to introduce Sundance attendees to the plans to hold the first International Film Festival Summit in London on April 18, 200...
Monday, January 22----Despite my earlier declaration to "Fuck The Parties", I fell victim to party fever as much as the next guy yesterday, but all were very pleasant affairs that were great networking opportunities and a chance to see old friends and colleagues. Things began at 11am at the Cafe Brilliant on Main Street, where the International Film Festival Summit held an informal get-together to introduce Sundance attendees to the plans to hold the first International Film Festival Summit i...
Monday, January 22----In one of the few deals announced here for a fiction feature (documentaries have been getting all the action so far), The Weinstein Company has announced its acquisition of worldwide rights to GRACE IS GONE, screening in the US Dramatic Film Competition here. The film, directed by James C. Strouse, stars John Cusack in a departure from his useful laconic screen self, as a father who is overwhelmed when he gets news that his wife has been killed in the Iraq War. The film ...
Monday, January 22----European Film Promotion, the pan-European organization that represents all the individual film promotion agencies in Europe, is lending financial and marketing support for eleven European films that are screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Film Sales Support (FSS), the European Film Promotion sales support initiative, is backing the promotion of 8 European feature films and 3 documentaries screening here this week. Begun in 2004, FSS is funded by the MEDIA Programme ...
The All Roads Film Project is making an impact at the Sundance film festival. On Sunday, January 21, All Roads partnered with LMU's School of Film and Television to celebrate a few of the project's "Distinguished Alumni." Held at The Spur Bar & Grill, the event featured the screening of Sterlin Harjo's "Four Sheets to the Wind." The film, which was produced in part by a grant from the All Roads Film Project tells the story of how a young Native American's previously uneventful life is tur...
Sunday, January 21-- What could possibly lead human beings to such unspeakable acts? That was the question AN AMERICAN CRIME director Tommy O'Haver (BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS, ELLA ENCHANTED) asked himself after the incident occurred involving Sylvia Likens and Gertrude Baniszewski in his hometown of Indianapolis. In 1965, 16-year old girl, Sylvia, was found starved and tortured in the basement of a suburban home. Her beatings were done by her caretaker, Gertrude, and Gertrude's children...
Sunday, January 21----Actor Kevin Bacon and his actress wife Kyra Sedgwick (who just won a Golden Globe Award last week for her role in the television drama THE CLOSER) were in Park City to launch their charitable website sixdegrees.org, a charitable community in which celebrities and regular folks alike share their favorite charity.
When someone donates to someone’s charity through sixdegrees.org, a “badge” from the person whose charity is supported is shown on your Web site or blog....
Sunday, January 21----One of the more anticipated big-name films that has its world premiere later this week is KING OF CALIFORNIA, a comedy drama about the often flinty relationship between a father and a daughter. The film stars Michael Douglas in one of the quirkiest performances of his long career, and Evan Rachel Wood, a fast rising star who made her mark a few years ago with the Sundance sleeper THIREEN (directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who is serving as a juror this year).
KING OF C...
Saturday, January 20----CRAZY LOVE, a documentary feature competing in the US Documentary Film Competition ,is one of the first to be close to a distribution deal, according to trade website IndieWire. Magnolia Pictures, a division of 2929 Entertainment, is set to pick up distribution rights to the film, which had its world premiere here on Friday night.
The film by Dan Klores, a film publicist-turned-director, documents the long romance between a New York socialite and a shark-like lawyer, ...
Saturday, January 20----It borders on heresy, but after spending the last two evenings attempting to attend parties TO WHICH I WAS OFFICIALLY INVITED, I am loudly proclaiming for all to hear: "Fuck the parties!". Of course, trying to crash parties is one of the key Sundance sports, along with ticket scalping and Redford spotting. The fever begins in the early part of the day, as information on the night's soirees heat up cel phones and email connections. What's on? Where is it? How do I get a...
Saturday, January 20----It is pretty much di rigeur that if one has one's film at the Sundance Film Festival, one moves hell and high water to make it here for the premiere. A rare exception to this rule is the case of the film WAITRESS, written, directed and co-starring Adrienne Shelly, a beloved indie actress who made her first impressions in the early films of auteur Hal Hartley (whose FAY GRIM is premiering here as well). Ms. Shelly, sadly, will not make an appearance in Park City this wee...
Saturday, January 20- Sundance showcased the world premiere of WE ARE THE STRANGE at the festival's first Midnight screening of the 2007 festival. Many have gotten a glimpse of the trailer on YouTube.com which has already attracted over 600,000 views. The major accomplishment of this movie is that it is the first-ever digitally animated feature of its kind at Sundance. Director M dot Strange developed a new style of animation which is called Str8nime. M dot Strange spent 10 years developing...
Tuesday, January 20----Three filmmakers, whose young careers have been nurtured by Tribeca All Access (TAA), the Tribeca Film Institute program, will have world premieres of their films at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The Tribeca All Access program,now in its fourth year, selects thirty directors and screenwriters from an open call for submissions and provides them with one-on-one meetings with industry insiders. The 2007 Tribeca All Access participants will be announced in early March.
A...
January 19----Like a rare bird in flight, an extinct animal in the wild, a glimpse of a special species of tropical fish...one of the delights of the Sundance Film Festival is an activity known as "Redford sightings"....seeing the Sundance superstar Robert Redford in his natural habitat. Attached a few Redford sightings from the past 24 hours:
Sandy Mandelberger
Sundance Online Dailies Editor
...
Friday, January 19-----At its first Press Conference, the 2007 Sundance Film Festival announced the members of the six juries awarding prizes at the Festival, which opened last evening. The juries are made up of twenty-four individuals selected from the global film community, each of whom are bringing a broad range of experience and a unique perspective on film. The award winners will be announced on the evening of January 27 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony at the Park Cit...
