My DOX:AWARD top pick for the Ekko jury grid I participated in at this year’s CPH:DOX, Margreth Olin’s Songs of Earth, was also number one in my critic’s notebook for the doc most needing to be experienced on the big screen. In this palpably loving portrait of the veteran filmmaker’s elderly parents and the country that shaped them (and her), “Olin juxtaposes jaw-dropping, drone-captured images of the awe-inspiring Norwegian landscape with closeups of her dad’s bald pate, his tender hand on her mother’s back, as the environment and humankind become one” (per that notebook, and my coverage). Thus, it comes as little surprise […]

The post “Is There an Orchestra Playing in the Depths of the Glacier?”: Margreth Olin on Her TIFF-Debuting Documentary, Songs of Earth first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In terms of acquisitions, the most financially significant screening of last year’s TIFF was an industry-only one of The Holdovers, a Miramax-developed title whose worldwide rights promptly sold for $30 million to Focus Features; this year, it returned for press and public inspection following its Telluride premiere. It is, as previously announced, a crowdpleaser directed by Alexander Payne, designed for career rejuvenation after the ambitious, unwieldy and expensive commercial failure of 2017’s Downsizing, and effectively written under his instruction by sitcom writer-producer David Hemingson. He cannibalized what was initially written as a prep school-set pilot by, among other things, following Payne’s directive to […]

The post TIFF 2023: The Holdovers, Hit Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

This post is part of a series, Girlblogging. Read the introduction here. In the music video for The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” (1997), lead singer Richard Ashcroft walks down a blue-gray London street, bumping into passersby, bowling over the girls and pissing off the guys. When you’re famous and beautiful on film, these are things you can get away with. Ashcroft represents a thoroughly contemporary creature—the 20th-century star, who, on a small screen  today, looks more or less like the 21st; the detached, ambivalent, self-involved face of the modern urban world; the flâneur with somewhere to go, or something to […]

The post Girlblogging: Cléo from 5 to 7 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“I wonder if we can find ourselves fully in a world we invented,” the French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actor Lina Soualem eloquently ponders in the role of ever-questioning narrator of Bye Bye Tiberias, her extraordinary, multigenerational, female-focused family portrait. Seen through contemporary footage and 90s home movies — expertly interwoven with material from historical archives — the women include not only Soualem’s conservative, customs-observing grandmother and great-grandmother, who never left the Palestinian village their entire community had been forcibly displaced to, but also her mother, Hiam Abbass, a rebellious dreamer set on becoming an international actress. And now, 30 years on […]

The post “Forgetfulness is Fought with Words”: Lina Soualem on Her TIFF-Premiering Doc, Bye Bye Tiberias first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

For over 20 years, the Australian video artists Soda Jerk have been making work that samples film, music and other various forms of pop culture. Their films are kaleidoscopic and psychedelic, irreverent and constantly surprising. Their newest film, Hello Dankness, is no different. Set in a fictional suburbia populated by Tom Hanks, Annette Bening, Bruce Dern, and Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World, Dankness is a response to–and a film about–the 2016 election and its aftermath. After all, an era of American history and politics that so ferociously shred away societal norms and imbued daily life with a lasting weirdness […]

The post “We Think of Trump as the First Meme to Hold Office in the White House”: A Conversation with Hello Dankness Creators Soda Jerk first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s Evil Does Not Exist begins by removing every element that might be reasonably expected from his work by now. Instead of long group dialogue sessions and theatrical/ therapeutic role-play, Evil starts with a generously prolonged, people-free dolly shot through a forest, the camera pointed straight up at the sky as it’s broken up by branches passing overhead. With a higher-resolution camera and some fancy post work, the forest could be a formalist spectacle—tree limbs overlapping and dissolving, the lattices created in the process, etc. But visual high definition has never been one of Hamaguchi’s priorities, as his movies remain oddly […]

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The Gotham Film and Media Institute, Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today the programming for its 2023 Variety Gotham Week, taking place October 2 – 5th in New York City. In addition to three screenings and filmmaker conversations, the event will include The Expo, “a thought leadership program hosted by The Gotham’s Expanding Communities partner organizations specifically covering the topics of advocacy and career advancement for film & media creators.” From the press release: The Expo will launch with a panel taking an in-depth look at The Inclusion List hosted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in collaboration with Adobe Foundation. Organizations […]

The post The Gotham Announces 2023 Variety Gotham Week first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The Toronto International Film Festival is fully underway beginning today, and while the vibe will certainly be different without as many Hollywood stars on the red carpet — a number of films have qualified for SAG-AFTRA interim agreements while probably at least as many either were not able to or decided not to try — there’s as always a strong lineup of films to look forward to. Below, Filmmaker‘s editors have compiled a list of 20 films to watch out for, many of which ones that have premiered at other festivals along with several world premieres we are hearing particularly […]

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Vu just announced a new product that aims to make virtual production a lot more accessible: the Vu One. It’s two parts. One part turnkey virtual production studio in a (very, very, big) box. One part Vu’s Virtual Studio, a software platform that makes creating and running virtual scenes a lot easier. Let’s break down both parts. Complete Virtual Production Setup Vu One offers a complete, configurable VP setup, which includes: LED Wall by Unilumin, with sizing starting at 13×9 ft Media Server by Puget Systems LED Processor by Megapixel Stereoscopic camera tracker (more on that below) Optional camera tracker […]

The post Vu One: Vu’s New All-in-One Virtual Production Studio first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Film at Lincoln Center announces exclusively via Filmmaker this year’s participants for both the Artists Academy and Critics Academy, which will take place during the 61st annual New York Film Festival. Led by filmmaker Stacey Marbrey, the 2023 Artists Academy will entail a three-day workshop that will feature insight from working filmmakers, industry professionals and Artist Academy alumni. Specifically, some of the 2023 Academy mentors are film executive and former president of IFC Films Arianna Bocco and Emmy Award-winning producer Liz Nord. Per a press release, this year’s Artists Academy will include “panels, case studies, roundtable discussions, and networking opportunities […]

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