Maya Forbes’ directorial debut INFINITELY POLAR BEAR, starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for release in the US. Set in the late ’70s, an eccentric mess of a father tries to win back his wife by taking responsibility for their two young daughters. The spirited girls don’t make the overwhelming task any easier.
![[UPDATED] Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead at 46 of Heroin Overdose](https://images.vimooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/18012038/philip_seymour_hoffman.jpg)
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City apartment earlier today of an apparent heroin overdose. He was 46 years old. According to the NY Daily News, Hoffman was found alone in the bathroom of his apartment with a needle in his arm.
The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced the winners of the 2014 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing and STORIES WE TELL, written by Sarah Polley won the 2014 Writers Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival unveiled the features lineup for this year’s Festival, the 21st edition and running March 7 to 15, 2014 in Austin, Texas. Once again, the festival’s main competition categories are comprised of eight Narrative Feature world premieres and eight Documentary Feature world premieres, vying for their respective Grand Jury Prizes.
The Narrative Feature Competition includes: 10,000KM, directed by Carlos Marques Marcet, Animals, directed by Collin Schiffli, Before I Disappear, directed by Shawn Christensen, Fort Tilden, directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers, The Heart Machine, directed by Zachary Wigon, I Believe in Unicorns, directed by Leah Meyerhoff, The Mend, directed by John Magary and Wild Canaries, directed by Lawrence Michael Levine. The Documentary Feature Competition includes: Beginning With The End, directed by David Marshall, Born to Fly, directed by Catherine Gund, The Great Invisible, directed by Margaret Brown, The Immortalists, directed by Jason Sussberg & David Alvarado, Impossible Light, directed by Jeremy Ambers, Mateo, directed by Aaron I. Naar, Print the Legend, directed by Luis Lopez & Clay Tweel and Vessel, directed by Diana Whitten.
Godfrey Reggio
It is so amazing to come across and be exposed to an artist who is not only a true original, but one who seems to be operating from a truly higher conscious. The director Godfrey Reggio certainly qualifies as one of those rare artists who seem to aim high, as in, the collective third eye, or, the global consciousness. Although he insists that art should have no purpose, his powerful, devastating and poetically gorgeous Qatsi trilogy of films, which he is most well-known for, and which includes KOYAANISQATSI, POWAQQATSI, and NAQOYQATSI, beg to differ. Scored by Phillip Glass and filling the screen with image after image of various stages of global community, searing beauty, eco-devastation, commerce and industry- assaulting us with the most vivid, the most poignant global imagery.
WE ARE THE BEST!
The 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam will close on Saturday February 1st with the Dutch premiere of WE ARE THE BEST!, the latest film by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson (FUCKING ÅMÅL, MAMMOTH). Based on his wife’s graphic novel, Moodysson (1969, Malmö) made what is described as a wonderfully anarchistic yet authentic portrait of three teenage girls wanting to start a punk band in Stockholm.
ROB THE MOB directed by Raymond De Felitta and starring Andy Garcia
Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) announced the films selected to screen during its 31st edition of the annual 10-day event, which runs March 7 to 16, 2014. The Festival will open with the North American premiere of ELSA & FRED directed by Michael Radford. Oscar winners Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer play the titular characters originated by China Zorrilla and Manuel Alexandre in this remake of the 2008 release of the Argentine/Spanish film of the same name. Also in the cast are Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden; as well as George Segal, Chris Noth, James Brolin, Wendell Pierce, Jaime Camil and Osvaldo Rios.
The Festival‘s annual Awards Night gala will wrap with the World premiere of ROB THE MOB directed by Raymond De Felitta and starring Andy Garcia. Rob the Mob also stars Michael Pitt, Ray Romano, Burt Young, Griffin Dunne, Frank Whaley, Cathy Moriarty, Aida Turturro, Yul Vazquez and Nina Arianda.
Joe Manganiello’s documentary LA BARE that premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival has been acquired by Main Street Films for a planned Summer 2014 release in the U.S. The Magic Mike star’s directorial debut gives an insider’s look at the history, the lives and the culture of the most popular male strip club in the world, La Bare Dallas.
Adam West
The 20th San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLOIFF) scheduled for March 5 to 9, 2014, will open with STARRING ADAM WEST, a new documentary by director, James Tooley. STARRING ADAM WEST tells the story of a Hollywood survivor, a family man, and the loyal fans who will stop at nothing to see their super hero justly rewarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Adam West will be at the screening for a Q&A and will receive the Festival’s Spotlight Award.
THE WIND RISES
The 10th Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF), taking place in Boulder, Colorado from February 13 to 16, 2014, announced its film program lineup which includes six Oscar-nominated films. The festival kicks off on Thursday, February 13 with an Opening Night Red Carpet Gala and screening of the comedy FADING GIGOLO, directed, written by and starring John Turturro, co-starring Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Vanessa Paradis, and Liev Schreiber, at the Boulder Theater. The full festival program will be released and all festival tickets will go on sale Jan. 27.
Just as the Sundance Film Festival was winding down, one of the festival’s most buzzed about films, FED UP, directed by Stephanie Soechtig and produced by Katie Couric, was snapped up by RADIUS-TWC for release later this year.
Upending the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and how to lose it, FED UP unearths a dirty secret of the American food industry—far more of us get sick from what we eat than anyone has previously realized. Filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig and TV journalist Katie Couric lead us through this potent exposé that uncovers why—despite media attention, the public’s fascination with appearance, and government policies to combat childhood obesity—generations of American children will now live shorter lives than their parents did.
LIFE AFTER BETH directed by Jeff Baena, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition will be released in the U.S. by A24. The release date of “LIFE AFTER BETH” is expected in late spring or early summer 2014. The Hollywood Reporter calls “Life After Beth” a “perfectly pitched debut that should benefit greatly from word of mouth and, especially given the top-flight comic talents surrounding lead Dane DeHaan, won’t appeal solely to fanboys at the box office.”