About.com World / Independent Film

New Yorker Films Returns

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:41:16 +0000

A year after going out of business, New Yorker Films is returning. indieWIRE reports that the company will be headed by former VP Jose Lopez and founder Dan Talbot. Known for its acclaimed catalog of 400 film films and the countless classic foreign films the distributor brought to the US, the new New Yorker will release six to eight films theatrically each year.

New Yorker Films Returns originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 13:41:16.

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Winter's Bone Wins Top Prizes at Sundance

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:14:48 +0000

Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, a tale about an impoverished teen� (Jennifer Lawrence) searching for her meth-cooking father in the Ozarks, won both the grand jury prize for best drama film and the Waldo Salt screenwriting award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival .

Based on the Daniel Woodrell's novel, Winter's Bone was Granik's second film at Sundance. In 2005, she received a director's award for Down to the Bone, the gritty drama about a drug addicted single mother that helped launched the career of Vera Farmiga.

Restrepo took the prize for best documentary. The film, directed by Sebastian Junger (author of The Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington, tells of a year in the life of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

In the audience awards, first-time director and actor Josh Radnor's happythankyoumoreplease won the award for best drama.�The film tells of six young New Yorkers dealing with life, love and friendship. Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), received the audience award for best documentary for this critical look at the crumbling U.S. educational system, Waiting for Superman.

This year's jury included Morgan Spurlock, Ondi Timoner,� Russell Banks, Jason Kliot, Karyn Kusama, Parker Posey, and Robert Yeoman.

The complete list of Sundance Winners.

Winter's Bone Wins Top Prizes at Sundance originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 11:14:48.

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Big Jury News: Werner to head Berlin, Burton does Cannes

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:24:04 +0000

Acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog has been selected to head the jury for the 60th anniversary Berlinale. He'll be joined by Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger, Italian director Francesca Comencini, and Chinese screen star Yu Nan. The Berlinale runs from February 11 through 21.

If you require an immediate fix of Werner, we recommend this dramatic reading of Curious George (no, it's not really him.) His most recent film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was one of our favorites of 2009.

In near simultaneous announcement, Tim Burton has been selected as jury president at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival. His much anticipated adaptation of Alice in Wonderland starring wife Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, and newcomer Mia Wasikowska, will be released March 5, 2010.

Big Jury News: Werner to head Berlin, Burton does Cannes originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 11:24:04.

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Experience Sundance From Home

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:08:12 +0000

The Sundance Film Festival is currently underway. Chances are -- like us -- you're not in Park City, Utah. The good news is that the festival is showcasing more and more films by both video on demand and streaming online.

As part of the "Direct from the Sundance Film Festival" initiative, three films that being are being screened at the fest are� simultaneously available nationwide through Sundance Selects. The films are:

Michael Winterbottom's Shock Doctrine, based on the book by Naomi Klein, a documentary that seeks to explain the rise of "disaster capitalism."
Josh and Benny Safdie's Daddy Long Legs, an autobiographical fairy tale and bittersweet comedy about the responsibilities of parenthood.
Daniel Grou's 7 Days, a dark and gritty thriller that centers on a successful surgeon whose world is torn apart by the murder of his eight-year-old daughter.

Online, YouTube is making a selection of this year's fest available for download. Films such as Tze Chun's Children of Invention and Linas Phillips Bass Ackwards can be rented for $3.99.

Check out IFC's awesome cheat sheet for highlights of this year's festival.

Experience Sundance From Home originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 14:08:12.

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The Oscar Short List: Foreign Films

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000

The Academy has announced the nine films that comprise the foreign film short list 82nd Academy Awards. The list is� led by Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, which received the Palme d'Or, a Golden Globe, Best Foreign Film by the New York Film Critics Online, and topped J�rgen's list of Best Films of 2009.

Also in the running is Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, from France.

The Complete Short� List:

Argentina: El Secreto de Sus Ojos
Australia: Samson & Delilah
Bulgaria: The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner
France: Un Prophete
Germany: The White Ribbon
Israel: Ajami
Kazakhstan: Kelin
The Netherlands: Winter in Wartime
Peru: The Milk of Sorrow

More: A list of past Academy Award winners in the Best Foreign Film category.

The Oscar Short List: Foreign Films originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 12:13:08.

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DVD Pick of the Week: Che

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:14:29 +0000

Steven Soderbergh's obsessively detailed two-part biopic about the Argentine revolutionary is boldly ambitious, with a bravura performance by Benicio del Toro at its center. By focusing on two specific periods of Guevara's life, Soderbergh Che manages to avoid all of the biopic's cliched pitfalls and instead offers an epic combat adventure that is also a deconstruction of genre expectations, a study of guerrilla warfare, and a vivid portrait of a larger-than-life personality.

Supervised and approved by director Steven Soderbergh, the Criterion Collection release of the film -- available in DVD and Blu-Ray -- offers a bevy of special features, including the documentary Making "Che", interviews with participants in and historians of the Cuban Revolution and Che's Bolivian campaign, deleted scenes and more.

DVD Pick of the Week: Che originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 11:14:29.

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Review: Fish Tank

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:51:33 +0000

Katie Jarvis, the star of Andrea Arnold's second film Fish Tank, was discovered at the train tracks, fighting with a boyfriend. She's not a trained actress; but as the angry and vulnerable Mia, fifteen-years-old, increasingly desperate, the girl never seems to be acting. She exists -- breathing, dancing, grasping for love.

Fish Tank is now playing in theaters. Read Marcy's review.

Review: Fish Tank originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 11:51:33.

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Eric Rohmer Dies at 89

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:02:22 +0000

French Filmmaker Eric Rohmer passed away on Monday at the age of 89. Rohmer, best known for such films as Pauline at the Beach (pictured above) and the Oscar-nominated My Night at Maud's, is considered one of the founders of the influential New Wave Film Movement.

As Jurgen wrote in his review of Chloe in the Afternoon, the first thing one notice about a Rohmer film is that there's a lot of talk: people talk over dinner, over drinks, on the phone, in bed and on the bus, and if there's nobody to talk to, the protagonist will do a little voice-over narration. The director of more than fifty films, Rohmer continued to work late into old age. His final film The Romance of Astr�e and C�ladon was released in 2007.

In 2001, Rohmer was awarded a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his body of work.

Read Dave Kehr's obituary in the New York Times.

Eric Rohmer Dies at 89 originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 11:02:22.

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Review: Youth In Revolt

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:59:25 +0000

Will Michael Cera get laid? Several fine films have already dealt with the weighty topic of the actor's on-screen deflowering -- Juno, Superbad, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It's the central question yet again in Miguel Arteta's Youth In Revolt, an adaptation of C.D. Payne's cult novel. Will Nick Twisp (Cera) get to do it? And do we care?

Youth In Revolt, also starring Portia Doubleday, M. Emmet Walsh, Zach Galifianakis, and Steve Buscemi, opens today. Read Marcy's review.

Review: Youth In Revolt originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 11:59:25.

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�Kick-Ass� To Open SXSW 2010

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:01:11 +0000

No, it's not a description of the film: Matthew Vaughn's film is actually called Kick-Ass and the action adventure film has been announced as the opening film of the SXSW Film Festival. The indie fest takes place this year from March 12 - 20 in Austin, Texas.

Based on a comic book, Kick-Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski, an obsessive fan boy (Aaron Johnson) who decides to become a real life super hero. Nicolas Cage, who recently blew us away in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant, plays Big Daddy, a crazed vigilante. Sounds good to us.

Lions Gate will release Kick-Ass on August 16, 2009. Watch the trailer.

�Kick-Ass� To Open SXSW 2010 originally appeared on About.com World / Independent Film on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:01:11.

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