Gravitas Ventures to Release 3 Films From 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

Gravitas Ventures to Release 3 Films From 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

The Bitter Buddha, Steven Feinartz

Gravitas Ventures will release three “raucous Slamdance films” from 2013 Slamdance Film Festival in the next three months: Steven Feinartz’s documentary The Bitter Buddha, Michael Urie’s comedy He’s Way More Famous Than You and Peter Baxter’s documentary Wild In The Streets. 

First up debuting in select theatres on February 15, 2013 and on VOD on February 19th is The Bitter Buddha, Steven Feinartz’s perceptive look at alt-comic genius Eddie Pepitone. Though often revered as a “comic’s comic”, Eddie Pepitone is a man at war with himself. And he has the scars to prove it. The Bitter Buddha takes the viewer backstage in the alternative comedy scene to reveal one of its most undervalued treasures. This portrait of a comedian looks at Pepitone’s off beat humor and lifestyle as he battles the world around him. Stand-up comedy, original animation and interviews with Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis and others provide insight into this beloved career comedian known as ”the guitarist that all the other guitarists go to see.”

CBS Films to Release Toy’s House from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

CBS Films to Release Toy’s House from 2013 Sundance Film Festival

CBS Films has grabbbed the coming-of-age comedy film TOY’S HOUSE, that premiered on Saturday at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. TOY’S HOUSE, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, from a screenplay by Chris Galletta,stars Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty, Marc Evan Jackson, Thomas Middleditch and Tony Hale. TOY’S HOUSE follows three teenage boys (Robinson, Basso and Arias) as they head into the wilderness with a […]

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Announces Opening Films for Generation Programs

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Announces Opening Films for Generation Programs

The Generation 14plus competition at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, will open with the world premiere of the Turkish entry Jîn by Reha Erdem (Kosmos, Berlinale 2010).   The director and his leading actress, Deniz Hasgüler, who plays a young fighter caught between the fronts in Turkey’s Kurdish regions, will be in attendance. The Dutch-Belgian co-production Nono, Het Zigzag Kind (The Zigzag Kid) by Vincent Bal will kick off the competition of Generation Kplus. Isabella Rossellini and Burghart Klaussner (Das weisse Band) are […]

2013 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards, Polish Film The Whistle Wins Tops Prize

2013 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards, Polish Film The Whistle Wins Tops Prize

The Whistle

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival presented the awards for the jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking at a ceremony in Park City, Utah.

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to The Whistle / Poland (Director: Grzegorz Zariczny) — Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to Whiplash / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle) — An aspiring drummer enters an elite conservatory’s top jazz orchestra.

Other Short Film Awards include

Four directors from India, Italy-US, Brazil and UK-Germany Win 2013 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards

Four directors from India, Italy-US, Brazil and UK-Germany Win 2013 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards

Sarthak Dasgupta, THE MUSIC TEACHER from India; Jonas Carpignano, A CHJANA from Italy-US; Aly Muritiba, THE MAN WHO KILLED MY BELOVED DEAD from Brazil; and Vendela Vida & Eva Weber, LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME from UK-Germany-US were announced yesterday as the winning directors and projects of the 2013 Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards. Each of the four winning filmmakers will receive a cash award of $10,000 in addition to other prizes.

The awards were presented at a private ceremony at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A., by Rohit Khattar.

The winners of the 2013 Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award are:

Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Prince Avalanche for US Release After 2013 Sundance Film Festival Premiere

Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Prince Avalanche for US Release After 2013 Sundance Film Festival Premiere

Magnolia Pictures has picked up the film PRINCE AVALANCHE after its Sunday premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The new film from writer/director David Gordon Green, PRINCE AVALANCHE stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. Loosely adapted from an Icelandic film called Either Way, PRINCE AVALANCHE is described as an offbeat comedy about two men played by Rudd and Hirsch, painting traffic lines on a desolate country highway that’s been ravaged by wildfire. Against this dramatic […]

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Completes Panorama Program Lineup

2013 Berlin International Film Festival Completes Panorama Program Lineup

Yesterday Never Ends

The Panorama section lineup for the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival is now officially complete with a total of 52 feature films. 16 films are showing in the main program, another 16 are in Panorama Special, 20 features are screening in Panorama Dokumente and two short films will be shown as supplements. 

Ayer no termina nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) by Isabel Coixet, is the last addition to the Panorama Special section. “Spain is at the lowest point of the crisis, more than seven million people are unemployed. A couple meet at their son’s grave, which has to make way for a new casino town. Anger, hatred and bitterness erupt. A nightmarish film that goes far beyond personal grief to evoke the end of a society.”

The Panorama Dokumente will open with the world premiere of a Swedish documentary, Simon Klose’s TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard. “In the early years of the 21st century, the Pirate Bay, a Swedish file sharing platform that allows Internet users to share films and music, grew enormously. The trial against the founders appears to be an unequal fight between Hollywood and three open-minded computer hackers, who come across very differently in Klose’s film than Hollywood’s media lawyers depict them. The film will be released for free online at the same time as it premieres in Panorama.”

The following newly announced titles, completes the line-up of films:

Human Rights Watch Film Festival Returns to Toronto, Opens on February 26 with Putin’s Kiss

Human Rights Watch Film Festival Returns to Toronto, Opens on February 26 with Putin’s Kiss

Putin’s Kiss

The 10th Human Rights Watch Film Festival with a 10-film lineup of “politically charged, inspiring and empowering stories covering themes of oppression, struggle and resilience” opens on February 26, 2013 at TIFF Bell Lightbox with Lise Birk Pedersen’s Putin’s Kiss (2012), a documentary/coming-of-age story about life in contemporary Russia as experienced by Masha Drokova, a middle-class youth activist and member of the anti-fascist group Nashi. The festival runs until March 7. 

Highlights include a focus on women’s issues with Jeremy Teicher’s Tall as the Baobab Tree (2012), set in a rural African village poised at the outer edge of the modern world where a girl hatches a secret plan to rescue her 11-year-old sister from an arranged marriage, and Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone (2012), a gripping film about a woman in an unnamed, war-torn Middle Eastern country who delivers an engrossing, liberating monologue to her comatose husband.

The full lineup of films:

TIFF Next Wave Film Festival to Kick Off on February 15

TIFF Next Wave Film Festival to Kick Off on February 15

Dead Before Dawn 3D

TIFF unveiled today the lineup of film screenings and special events for the 2013 TIFF Next Wave Film Festival scheduled for February 15 to 17.

This second edition of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival will again kick off with the Battle of the Scores — a high-profile showcase for young musical and filmmaking talent, featuring high-school indie bands scoring youth-made short films live in front of an audience and a panel of professional judges from the Toronto music and film community, including film composer Adrian Ellis, and director, actor and choreographer Corey Bowles.

The festival’s Closing Night film is April Mullen’s Dead Before Dawn 3D (2012), described as a hilariously clever coming-of-age adventure story that puts a whole new spin on the zombie genre. Starring director Mullen and writer/producer Tim Doiron, the film was shot in Niagara Falls, Ontario and it follows a group of college students that accidentally unleash an evil curse that causes people to kill themselves and turn into Zemons, aka Zombie Demons. 

Film lineup includes:

2013 Beaufort International Film Festival to run February 13 – 17, Announces Finalists

2013 Beaufort International Film Festival to run February 13 – 17, Announces Finalists

Death By China – Peter Navarro

The Beaufort International Film Festival scheduled for February 13 – 17, 2013 in Beaufort, South Carolina, is gearing up to be a huge event. Tickets officially went on sale earlier this week.

Ron Tucker, President of the Beaufort Film Society, the organizer of the festival, said more than 7,000 people participated in last year’s festival and he expects an even greater turnout this year. “We will present more than thirty screenings to include shorts, documentaries, animated films and student productions and we look forward to hosting some exciting special guests and celebrities again this year. This may be our best festival yet.”  

Among the events, Mike Tollin, Director of the film, Radio, which was shot in the Lowcountry (Walterboro) in 2003, will accept the Jean Ribaut Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. The real life “Radio”, James Robert Kennedy (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), and Coach Harold Jones (played by Ed Harris), will also attend the festival.

Indie filmmaker Chris Brinker, producer and director of the soon-to-be-released motion picture, Whisky Bay, will conduct a Q and A on the making of the film along with the film’s star, Tom Berenger. Brinker will also be honored by the festival with the inaugural Robert Smalls Indie Vision Award, named after the Civi War hero who rose from being a slave to a U. S. Congressman. 

 And for the films, the festival announced the finalists in categories including Animation, Documentary, Shorts, Student Films, Screen Play, Best Actor and Best Director. 

Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony to be held the evening of February 16.

BIFF 2013 Finalists

15 Films added to 2013 Santa Barbara International Film Festival line-up

15 Films added to 2013 Santa Barbara International Film Festival line-up

A Royal Affair

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which begins Thursday, January 24, 2013, has added 15 films to the already stellar lineup of films being showcased at this year’s festival, including three Academy Award nominees, two World Premieres and two US Premieres.

“We’ve added some fantastic new films that broaden the scope of the program and embody the international spirit of the festival,” commented Michael Albright, SBIFF’s Director of Programming.

World Premieres being added are:

The international premiere of Stoker Starring Nicole Kidman to Close 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam

The international premiere of Stoker Starring Nicole Kidman to Close 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam

The international premiere of Stoker, the English debut of South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, Thirst, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), will close the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam on Saturday February 2.  Park has won many awards, including the Alfred Bauer Award of the Berlin film festival (for I’m a Cyborg) and the jury prize of the Cannes film festival (for Oldboy and Thirst). The closing film is a psychological drama/thriller starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, […]