All Sundance articles – Page 86
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News
New dawn for Sundance Indies
This year’s Sundance Film Festival is a crucial bellwether for the independent film business. Even as end-of-year hits such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, The Reader and Milk pack theatres across North America, the domestic acquisitions business has been sluggish to say the least.Very rarely, these days, do distributors thrash ...
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Herwitz takes on world sales to Sundance competition entry Adam
The Film Sales Company president Andrew Herwitz has signed on to represent worldwide rights toMax Mayer’s Sundance dramatic competition entry Adam.
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Ghent Festival honours Richard Jenkins
Veteran actor Richard Jenkins will be honoured at the 35th Ghent International Film Festival with their Special Achievement Award.It will be presented after the Benelux premiere of The Visitor in Ghent, Belgium on Oct 7. Jenkins, along with co-stars Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira will attend the screening.In Overture's The ...
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Oscilloscope gushes over FLOW documentary
Beastie Boys founder Adam Yauch and ex-THINKFilm executive David Fenkel's Oscilloscope Pictures has picked up North American rights to Irena Salina's environmental documentary FLOW: For Love Of Water.The New York-based company, which was in Cannes scouting for titles for its inaugural slate and selling rights to Yauch's documentary Gunnin' For ...
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Visit Films acquires international rights to Momma's Man
Ryan Kampe and Sylvain Tron's fledgling sales company Visit Films has acquired international rights to Azazel Jacobs' comedy Momma's Man, which premiered at Sundance earlier in the year.Visit will commence sales in Cannes next month on the story of a businessman who moves back in to his parents' downtown New ...
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Sundance unveils New York premieres of festival hits at BAM
New York premieres of Sundance 2008 hits American Teen, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil and Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr Hunter S Thompson are among the highlights of the third annual Sundance Institute at BAM series, set to run in New York from May 29 to June 8.All ...
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Discovery, Magnolia walk tightrope together with Man On Wire doc
Discovery Films and Magnolia Pictures have acquired North American theatrical and DVD rights to James Marsh's Sundance world documentary jury and audience winner Man On Wire.Magnolia Pictures plans a late summer theatrical release followed by DVD roll-out through Magnolia Home Entertainment.Man On Wire is based on French high-wire walker Philippe ...
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Magnolia's Magnet takes a swing at Donkey Punch
London-based sales company Lumina has sold its Sundance hit thriller Donkey Punch to Magnolia Pictures' Magnet Releasing genre label for North America.Optimum has the UK rights and will release this summer.The deal was negotiated by Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn and director of acquisitions Dori Begley with Lumina's Samantha Horley and ...
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Reviews
The Last Word
Dir: Geoffrey Haley. US. 2008. 94 mins.Geoffrey Haley, a DP and editor perhaps best known for shooting the floating plastic bag sequence in American Beauty, makes his feature debut with The Last Word, a dark comedy about a man who makes a living writing other people's suicide notes. In ...
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Reviews
Downloading Nancy
Dir: Johan Renck. 2008. US. 96 mins.A woman’s journey of self-hatred, self-degradation, self-mutilation and ultimately self-destruction courtesy of a murderous kindred spirit makes for grim viewing in Downloading Nancy, the feature debut of Swedish commercials and music video director Johan Renck. Although acted with conviction and directed with not a ...
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Reviews
Anywhere USA
Dir. Chusy Haney-Jardine, USA, 2008, 124minsThe portentously titled Anywhere USA is a triptych of Americana by debut writer/director Chusy Haney-Jardine - a trailer-trash farce, an uncle/niece meditation on the death of parents, and a clumsy satire on racial anxiety among the rich and White.Haney-Jardine, who says the film draws on ...
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News
IFC loads up with Sundance double winner Ballast
IFC has picked up North American rights to Lance Hammer's Mississippi Delta-set drama Ballast, which screens in competition in Berlin and won the best director and cinematographer awards at Sundance last month following an enthusiastic reception by critics.Vice president of acquisitions and production Arianna Bocco negotiated the deal with William ...
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Reviews
The Guitar
Dir: Amy Redford. US. 2008. 93mins.The suggestive metaphor of loss and emotional trauma as divine liberation is treated awkwardly between the outrageous and obscene in Amy Redford's debut feature The Guitar. Saffron Burrows is commanding as a distraught woman who finds a novel way to cope with tragedy, but the ...
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Reviews
Sleep Dealer
Dir: Alex Rivera. Mexico/US. 2008. 90 mins.Alex Rivera's low budget futuristic thriller Sleep Dealer is set in the near future where the USA has been sealed off from Mexico yet Mexican workers still do all the hard labour through technology. A selection in dramatic competition at Sundance last week and ...
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Reviews
Riprendimi
Dir: Anna Negri. Italy. 2008. 96 mins.Anna Negri's second film Riprendimi is a bittersweet comedy about the breakup of a relationship and the fallout for those involved. Offering intelligent commentary on the fickleness of young men and women today as well as many amusing insights into humans in romantic ...
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Reviews
Trouble the Water
Dirs: Tia Lessin & Carl Deal. US. 2007. 90minsAlthough both productions document the same Hurricane Katrina that unleashed its fury on the US Gulf Coast in 2005, Trouble The Water could hardly be more different stylistically from Spike Lee's 2006 mini-series When The Levees Broke. If Lee's reverentially crafted ...
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Reviews
Phoebe in Wonderland
Dir/scr: Daniel Barnz. US. 2008. 96mins.In the lyrically compelling though dynamically flawed Phoebe in Wonderland, first-time feature director Daniel Barnz excites and frustrates in equal measure. His story of a dazzlingly smart young girl's personal liberation through her exposure to the Lewis Carroll masterpiece has moments of awe and ...
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Reviews
Blind Date
Dir: Stanley Tucci. US/Belgium/Holland. 2008. 85mins.The second of a planned trilogy of English-language remakes of films by the murdered Dutch provocateur Theo van Gogh, Stanley Tucci's Blind Date, about a man and woman who stage elaborate games in order to conceal the pain of a horrifying loss, is a ...
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Reviews
The Merry Gentleman
Dir: Michael Keaton. US. 2008. 110mins.In his directorial debut The Merry Gentleman, Michael Keaton reveals some of the same flair for the off-beat, moody and unconventional he has acutely demonstrated as an actor. He summons a wonderful performance by Kelly Macdonald and strong character distinction to the secondary players, ...
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Reviews
Bottle Shock
Dir. Randall Miller. US, 2008,112minsBottle Shock is a dramatization of a California winery's rise from obscurity to victory over French wines in a blind-tasting competition in France in 1973. It is based on a true story, and produced by friendly souls from the winemaking region North of San Francisco. ...