German philosopher Ernst Bloch was noted for his introspection and study around what he termed the “utopian imagination.” He put forth the concept of simultaneous non-simultaneity: the possibility that people could live in different temporalities while inhabiting the same place at the same time. Moving image work, by its very nature, can illustrate this idea like no other art form can – even without special effects or CGI. From frame to frame, sequence to sequence, a collection of purpose-built images and sounds floats through their own unique space-time continuum, evoking an awakening, a recognition, creating a genre-defying ode to staying […]

The post “…How To Put Myself in a Situation Where the Outside Pain Helps Me Reach the Inside Pain…”: Stefan Djordjevic on His IFFR-Premiering Wind, Talk to Me first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Hailey Gates’s war-training satire Atropia won today the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Brittany Shyne’s Seeds, about Black farmers in Georgia and their relationship to both the land and U.S. agricultural policy, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. In the international categories, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s UK/India/Canada production about a Western India urbanite grieving the loss of his father. Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears). Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار), Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s documentary about the feminist teachings of a councilwoman in a small Iranian […]

The post Atropia, Seeds Win Top Prizes at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A family of four—an unnamed Dad (John Magaro), his children Ella and Charlie (Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis), and their Golden Retriever—hit the road at the start of Omaha, towards Nebraska. We don’t get to know too much about them at first—just that they have an old car that needs a little push, and they’ve been evicted from their home, forced to collect their most treasured possessions quickly, like they are saving memorabilia during a fire. We don’t even know why they are heading there. Cole Webley’s deeply compassionate gut-punch of a movie, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic […]

The post “Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

One night in the summer of 2022, I received a text message from a producer to whom I had sent the script for 1 Girl Infinite, hoping she might help me make the film. Her message read: “I love the script. But I won’t be able to do it because it’s dangerous.” I was not surprised by her comment. In China, filmmakers must pass the bureau censorship to release their work. I was acutely aware of the fact that the details of my film had no chance of approval for a domestic theatrical release in China, despite it being a […]

The post Clandestine Sexual Development in China: Making 1 Girl Infinite first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Every Tuesday Tyler Coates publishes his new Filmmaker newsletter, Considerations, devoted to the awards race. To receive it early and in your in-box, subscribe here. It rained in Los Angeles this weekend, and the way the phrase “we needed this” became a meme felt like a collective awkward laugh followed by a sigh of relief. For the past few weeks almost everyone has been on edge, many mourning massive losses from the fires in the Palisades and Altadena. Wind advisories meant our go-backs were still packed, phones facing up in case of Watch Duty notifications. (Oh, and a lot of […]

The post Considerations: Phase 2 Begins first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Among the features premiering this year at the Sundance Film Festival, there are none — on paper — simpler than Ira Sachs’s Peter Hujar’s Day. Arriving just two years after he premiered his Passages at the festival, Sachs reunites with actor Ben Whishaw for a picture that’s one 76-minute dialogue between two friends in a New York apartment in 1974. What’s more, that dialogue is not some dramatically sculptured theatrical two-hander building to third act epiphanies but, rather, a transcription of an actual conversation between art photographer Hujar and artist Linda Rosenkrantz, who was conducting interviews for a book in […]

The post “In a Way This Film Asks, What is Lost by the Virtual?” Ira Sachs on his Sundance-Premiering Peter Hujar’s Day first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

For Jesus Camp and Detropia directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, a film can be born from the most inconspicuous of things, like something they have overheard, or a phrase that stayed with them. Folktales, their stunning documentary set in a folk school in the snow-clad Northern Norway, was no exception. During the early days of Covid, Ewing was catching the end of a podcast when American dog sledder Blair Braverman was talking about her vocation, as well as what happens to your mind when you’re alone for 12 days with a pack of dogs. As a dog and nature […]

The post “There Are No Good Harnesses, Clips and Clamps That Keep a GoPro on a Dog”: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady on Their Sundance Doc Premiere, Folktales first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) is director Joel Alfonso Vargas’s feature adaptation of his short film May it Go Beautifully for You, Rico. The film follows Rico, his family and his girlfriend as they adjust to the latter’s new pregnancy. The film is a 2025 Sundance Film Festival NEXT selection and was shot by Rufai Ajala, who also served as DP on the original short. Below, Ajala discusses translating New York’s summer heat into visuals and the advantages of shooting in New York City. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer […]

The post “We Wanted to Get Across a Sense of the Overbearing Heat”: DP Rufai Ajala on Mad Bills to Pay first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Joel Alfonso Vargas has adapted his short May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico into the feature-length Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section. The film follows the carefree Rico as he attempts to get his life together when his girlfriend gets pregnant. Editor Irfan Van Tuijl, who edited May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico reprised his roll for Mad Bills to Pay. Below, he explains what it’s like to cut a film that is composed entirely of master shots and what kind of material was left […]

The post “Loads of the Story Was Abstracted”: Editor Irfan Van Tuijl on Mad Bills to Pay first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Three weeks before the Sundance Midnight Madness premiere of her zombie dramedy Didn’t Die, director Meera Menon (whose credits appositely include episodes of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead) and her partner Paul Gleason (who co-wrote and shot the film) lost their home in the Eaton fire that devastated Altadena, Los Angeles. Not only that, the film’s producer Erica Fishman and her partner Geoff Boothby, who edited the film, also lost their home in the fire. The irony is that Didn’t Die centers on a group of five in the zombie apocalypse, trying desperately to hang on to their […]

The post COVID Zombies in the Fire: Meera Menon on Didn’t Die first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.