Friday, July 31, 2015

Attention, Filmmakers: Oxford Film Festival Now Accepting Submissions

READ MORE: Watch: James Franco's 'The Sound and the Fury' Clip Features Award-Worthy Scott Haze The Oxford Film Festival, which takes place in Oxford, Mississippi, is accepting entries for next year's festival in all programming categories, including music videos, documentaries and more. The festival, which typically takes place after the Sundance Film Festival, has hosted regional premieres of films like James Franco's "The Sound and the Fury" and Chad Hartigan's "This is Martin Bonner." All submissions will be accepted at Film Freeway until November 15, but you can save money by submitting sooner.  The festival will be run by newly-appointed Executive...

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Sarajevo Film Fest Lineup Has Auteurs, Cannes Winners and Favorites

It's mid-summer, which means European film festivals — from Karlovy Vary to Locarno and, now, Sarajevo — start to offer up alternative programming as the busy Fall season looms. Now in its 21st year, the Sarajevo Film Festival is bringing competition premieres as well as buzzy Cannes titles to Bosnia. Those who missed Sony Pictures Classics pickup "Son of Saul," the Holocaust drama that took the Coens' Cannes jury prize and is now Hungary's Oscar submission, can see it here. The festival runs August 14-22. Also from Cannes are "Amy," prize winner "The Lobster," "Irrational Man," "Green Room," Quinzaine winner "Mustang,"...

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Here's What These Filmmakers Wish They Knew Before They Made Their Films

Based in Montreal, Canada and running from July 14-August 5, the Fantasia International Film Festival, now in its 19th year, is North America's longest-running (and at three weeks, longest) genre festival. This year's festival features 136 feature films and nearly 300 short films from 36 countries including 22 world premieres.  READ MORE: Filmmaker Survey: The Biggest Challenges BAMcinemaFest 2015 Filmmakers Faced Indiewire reached out to the feature filmmakers with movies screening at this year's Fantastia Fest and asked, "What do you wish someone had told you about indie filmmaking before you got started?" Below are their responses (in some cases, edited...

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“Black Panthers”, “In The Morning”, “Crescendo”, “White Water” and “3 ½ Minutes” Among Others to be Screened at 21th Annual Chicago Black Harvest Film Festival in August

Another year has gone b and this August, as always in Chicago, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago, the annual Black Harvest Film Festival will take place, from Saturday August 8 to Thursday Sept 3 (Yes it’s always a month long, longer than even Cannes, Sundance or Toronto). And this year is special since it marks, believe it or not, the 21th anniversary of the festival. You have to admit, that’s a remarkable achievement for any film festival anywhere. And the festival organizers have put together a really solid festival this year, including some films we have profiled several times already here on S&A, such as Stanley Nelson’s “Black panthers:...

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Thursday, July 30, 2015

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Superstar DJ Calvin Harris!

Hot shots of Scottish EDM superstar Calvin Harris!
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EDM Superstar Calvin Harris!

Hot shots of Scottish EDM superstar Calvin Harris!
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Celebs At Summer TCAs 2015

All the stars of Netflix, MTV, Comedy Central, NatGeo and more at the Summer Television Critics Association Tour 2015.
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Venice Film Fest Lineup Released: Only 10% of Films in Competition Helmed by Women Directors

Yesterday we reported that the main jury of this year's Venice Film Festival will be comprised of six men and three women (Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger and Lynne Ramsay). The official lineup for the 72nd iteration of the festival was announced today, and if you were disappointed by the fact that women are outnumbered two-to-one on the jury responsible for selecting the fest's highest honors, you'll be further irritated/incensed/both by the news that the directors competing for said honors are also overwhelmingly male. Out of the 21 films in the competition section, only two are directed by women: famed performance artist Laurie Anderson's "Heart Of A Dog" and Sue Brooks'...

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'Fourth Man Out' and 'The State of Marriage' Bookend 28th Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Fest

The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival -- or aGLIFF -- has announced the entire 2015 film line up for its whopping 28th edition, which takes place at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar over four days, September 10-13, 2015.  “We are excited to announce this season’s schedule. Our 28th season promises to be our best one yet. aGLIFF is grateful to the community for their continued support and our generous sponsors and we’re looking forward to a great festival this September,” said Charlie Ray, aGLIFF Board of Directors President. Opening the festival, Thursday Sept 10 will be the Texas premiere of director Andrew Nackman’s, “Fourth Man Out.” We have...

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Luca Guadagnino’s 'I Am Love' Follow-Up 'A Bigger Splash' Leads Our Venice Film Festival To-Sees

The fall festival lineups are coming in fast and furious. Yesterday, we got a big chunk of Toronto's, including the LGBT-focused likes of 2000s-set civil partnership drama "Freeheld," 1960s-set civil rights drama "Stonewall" and "The Danish Girl," a fictionalized account of the life of one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery.    Today, it's Venice -- which alongside "Danish Girl" (having its world premiere there before heading to Toronto -- we get the massively anticipated likes of Luca Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash," the filmmaker's follow-up to his immaculate "I Am Love." His "I...

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'The Danish Girl' and 'A Bigger Splash' Join 'Everest' and 'Black Mass' at Venice Film Festival

The fall awards season is starting to take shape. Already announced were the Venice International Film Festival ( Sept. 2-12) opener, Baltasar Kormakur's mountain saga “Everest," starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Working Title/Universal) and Johnny Depp-starrer “Black Mass” (Warner Bros.). Now Venice confirms what we figured out from Tuesday's Toronto program: World premieres include “The Danish Girl" starring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne (Focus Features), Charlie Kaufman's Kickstarter-financed animated feature for adults, "Anomalisa," starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cary Fukunaga’s African actioner “Beasts of No Nation," starring Idris Elba...

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Tuesday, July 28, 2015

TIFF 2015 Announces Just 7 Women-Directed Films in Its First Round of Lineup Selections

The Toronto International Film Festival made public its first batch of films for its 2015 lineup this morning. Forty-nine films made the cut, but only a disappointing seven (about 14%) were directed by women. More features will be announced in the coming days and weeks. Those seven female-helmed works are Deepa Mehta's "Beeba Boys," Julie Delpy's "Lolo" and Jocelyn Moorhouse's "The Dressmaker" in the Galas section, as well as Meghna Gulzar's "Guilty," Rebecca Miller's "Maggie's Plan," Leena Yadav's "Parched" and Catherine Corsini's "Summertime" in the Special Presentations section. Some female-led star performances...

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Here's How This First-Time Canadian Filmmaker Made an Uncompromising Debut Film

When trying to get your film made, rejection can be tough. The knee-jerk reaction is to compromise: to make the jokes funnier, the romance steamier and the sex, well, sexier—that is, to adapt your screenplay to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.  François Péloquin, a first-time Canadian filmmaker, did exactly the opposite after being rejected for funds to make his debut feature film, "The Sound of Trees." Instead of compromising, he dove full force into his artistic vision, ultimately getting the funds and landing a world premiere for his film in the official competition in one of the major European film festivals—in Karlovy Vary. READ...

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Toronto Film Festival Lineup: What Did They Get?

The Toronto International Film Festival announced their opening night film Thursday -- Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee's 2016 Fox Searchlight release "Demolition," starring Jake Gyllenhaal -- and their high-profile Gala and Special Presentation programs. The line-up features World Premieres from documentarian Michael Moore ("Where to Invade Next"), Jay Roach ("Trumbo"), Nicolas Hytner ("The Lady in the Van"), Peter Sollett ("Freeheld"), "Eye in the Sky" (Gavin Hood), Julie Delpy ("Lolo"), Rebecca Miller ("Maggie's Plan"), Stephen Frears ("The Program") and Terence Davies...

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'The Danish Girl,' 'Stonewall' and 'Freeheld' All Heading To Toronto Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its first wave of titles, including 3 major LGBT-related films: Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl," Peter Sollett's "Freeheld" and Roland Emmerich's "Stonewall." Each at least loosely based on true stories of pioneering LGBT individuals, "Freeheld" and "Stonewall" will both be world premieres, while "The Danish Girl" will be North American. They were among 43 announced titles, which also included openly LGBT filmmakers Terence Davies and Nicholas Hytner's latest films and new work from the likes of Charlie Kaufman, Julie Delpy, Cary Fukunaga, Stephen Frears,...

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2015 TIFF Industry Conference Speakers Includes Bill Hader and Jia Zhang-ke

A list of special guests confirmed for the 2015 TIFF Industry Conference has been unveiled. The seven-day conference will feature 200 speakers and will include intimate conversations with industry powerhouse Gigi Pritzker and financing mogul Nicolas Chartier. Also as part of the program an Asian Film Summit Master Class with acclaimed filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke will take place. Actor, writer and producer Bill Hader and award-winning director Asif Kapadia will present at the Doc Conference. “We’re excited about the participation of these vanguards of the film industry in this year’s programming,” said Kathleen Drumm, Director, TIFF Industry Office. “By providing the...

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Venice Film Fest Adds Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger and Lynne Ramsay to Main Jury

Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" director Lynne Ramsay will comprise the three women on the nine-person main jury at this year's Venice International Film Festival. Kruger is no stranger to the festival circuit. She premiered "Disorder" (formerly "Maryland), a thriller written and directed by Alice Winocour, this spring in Cannes. The film was acquired by Sundance Selects. Banks, meanwhile, is no doubt still riding high on the smashing success of her directorial debut, "Pitch Perfect 2." She appears in the upcoming "Wet Hot American Summer" prequel series on Netflix.  The festival's Horizons section jury...

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