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The lineup of films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in the out-of-competition sections of Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier, and Park City at Midnight have just been announced. Yesterday we posted the complete lineup of films in competition.
"It is impossible to describe in one word the full tapestry of films presented in this year's Festival, particularly in the out-of-competition categories," said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. "In an enormously eclectic way these films reflect the role cinema can play as an international language transcending borders of class, race, culture, and religion."
"This is going to be a festival rich in talent,' said John Cooper, Director of Programming. "Independent film has reached a new plateau, from the filmmakers who tell stories that are fresh and unique, to a lineup of the best actors working today. Sundance audiences are going to see a range of work: both from those pushing the envelope of established careers and those soon to be discovered this January."
COMPLETE LIST OF 2008 SUNDANCE OUT-OF-COMPETITION FIMS
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The march towards the 2008 Sundance Film Festival took another giant step forward today with the announcement of the lineups for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions.
The numbers are impressive. According to the Sundance Institute, 121 feature-length films were selected including 87 world premieres, 14 North American premieres, and 12 U.S. premieres representing 25 countries with 55 first-time filmmakers, including 32 in competition. These films were selected from 3,624 feature film submissions composed of 2,021 U.S. and 1,603 international feature-length films. These numbers represent an increase from last year when 1,852 U.S. and 1,435 international feature-length films were considered.
The remaining out of competition feature lineup will be revealed tomorrow.
COMPLETE LIST OF 2008 SUNDANCE COMPETITION FILMS
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This is a watershed week for independent films, and movies in general, as three major events occur within days of each other: the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations (announced at 12 noon Eastern today), the Gotham awards (just announced tonight), and the lineup for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The competition lineups will be announced Wednesday afternoon and the Premieres, Spectrum, Midnight and Frontier sections will be announced on Thursday.
Unfortunately, I also happen to be serving on a jury in a murder trial this week so I'm not able to cover these events as I normally would. So you'll excuse me as, in lieu of a more detailed writeup, I'll post links to the relevant info.
COMPLETE LIST OF SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS
COMPLETE LIST OF GOTHAM AWARDS WINNERS
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Man in the Chair, written and directed by Michael Schroeder and starring Christopher Plummer and Michael Angarano, was our #1 Top Pick from this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It went on to play the top festivals around the world and win a slew of awards (see the list in the trailer which follows).
Man in the Chair will open on December 7 in NY & San Francisco, December 14 in LA, and December 21 in Chicago & Montreal. The film is rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements and Outsider Pictures is distributing. It will open January 11, 2008 in the UK.
An updated official site is now online, and we have just been given access to the brand new theatrical trailer.
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Of all the film festivals in the US, and certainly among those we've attended, none are as prestigious as the Sundance Film Festival. Today the Sundance Institute announced that the Opening Night Film of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival will be the World Premiere of Martin McDonagh's In Bruges.
"In many ways In Bruges is a quintessential Sundance film -- it's brutal, philosophical, funny, and totally original," said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. "Martin McDonagh is a masterful storyteller, a tremendously gifted playwright and provocative risk-taker and we are thrilled to showcase his feature-length directorial debut."
Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker and award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh, In Bruges features an international cast including Academy Award-nominee Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Brendan Gleeson.
In Bruges tells the story of hit men Ray and Ken, (Farrell and Gleeson, respectively) who, after a badly botched job in London, are ordered by their boss, Harry (Fiennes), to cool their heels in the bucolic city of Bruges, Belgium. Very much out of their comfort zones, the men find themselves drawn into increasingly dangerous entanglements with locals, tourists, and a film shoot. When their stay in Bruges takes a turn for the worst, Ray and Ken realize Harry may have plans for them other than a simple vacation.
The entire lineup will be announced here on November 27 and 28. The Sundance Film Festival takes place from January 17-27, 2008.
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Los Angeles Times writer Gina Piccalo asks, "Will indie-film buyers get grabby?" The article reiterates the theory among industry pundits that a long writers strike will be "pushing studios to grab promising material that's ready to go," according to Piccalo. "Some even speculate that the demand could be a boon to the foreign-film market as buyers look for inexpensive movies of quality."
This echoes our view that a long writers strike will ultimately help the independent film industry. Of course, she touches on the opposing view as well, which we also covered here earlier.
That said, the article lists a number of examples of films which might give some indication about what's to come.
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Every so often a film pops onto my radar long before it's released, or even before filming begins. Such was the case with Lost Dream, the first feature from writer/director/editor Asif Ahmed.
It was shortly after I was blown away by All the Boys Love Mandy Lane at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival that I discovered the film while seeking out the latest work from Michael Welch (Joan of Arcadia), who immediately struck me as a talent to watch for. As soon as I saw that he'd been cast in Lost Dream I began to follow its progress. Shaun Sipos (Complete Savages, Final Destination 2), Jeremy London (Party of Five, 7th Heaven), Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement, Strong Medicine), and the legendary Joseph Campanella round out the cast.
Lost Dream was shot in May and entered post-production this summer, and recently I was lucky to be able to see a rough cut of this powerful work. In the world of independent film, the next few months are critical. The submission process is underway for the major festivals in early 2008 and Lost Dream is bound to surface among them. You can expect to see more about the film in the months to come as we continue to follow its progress here on this blog.
The film's official site has just gone live at lostdreamfilm.com. Stills and information about the film, cast, and filmmakers are up now and much more is on the way.
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Here is another in a continuing series on answers to readers' questions. I receive many messages via email, MySpace, IMDb, and various other means of communication and am always so appreciative of folks taking the time to write. The feedback is incredibly valuable and I love hearing what readers have to say about independent film. In most cases, they ask questions which I'm all too happy to answer.
Recently I was asked, "What are the criteria used to decide whether an independent film will get picked up for a theatrical release? If they aren't, are most at least released straight to DVD? After spending money and time to film them, they don't just shelve them, do they?"
The main thing that distributors look for when deciding whether or not to pick up a film for theatrical release is whether or not they will be able to get a return on their investment. They are going to buy it and then resell it, essentially. Think of them as retailers. So basically they want to make money. It's obviously a very subjective process and involves both creative people as well as business types looking at the bottom line. They might look at what films are currently doing well in the marketplace, conduct market research through polling and focus groups, and whatever other methods are available to gauge whether or not people will go out to see it.
They also look at the track record of the people involved in making the film -- its pedigree. The producers, director, actors et al. can all help influence how well a film may do theatrically.
It helps if a film has played festivals and received critical acclaim. The more festivals it has been accepted to the more likely it is that people will want to see it, if only because others have already done some of the work for them in deciding that it was good enough to make it into those festivals. It is more likely to be appealing to distributors the more people see it at the festivals, the more critics like it, the more awards it wins, etc.
There are also political concerns. Some distributors have ongoing deals with certain producers or directors. Perhaps they picked up one of their films previously and, as part of the deal, agreed to distribute others as well. Or they want to pick up a film simply because they don't want one of their rivals to get it.
Of course, there may be a situation where a distributor simply wants to put out a film because they just like it, or feel that the subject matter or filmmaker or actors are worthy of the attention. Unfortunately, though, that tends to be the exception. It does happen, though, and is more likely to occur when the distributor has many other films on their schedule and will make enough money from those films to help finance one that may not do as well -- a loss leader, of sorts.
That brings up another issue -- image. Distributors may acquire a film simply because it makes them look good or fits their long-term game plan. Every distributor wants to have an image, whether it's a company that puts out cutting edge fare, or coming-of-age films, or family-oriented material, etc. Some just want "indie cred" -- they want people to look at them and think that they are a thoughtful, quality-oriented company because they are willing to take a chance on small films. It may then give them more credibility and leverage in the marketplace in the future, as well as good press.
Those are some of the main criteria in deciding whether or not to acquire a film. They basically boil down to money, politics, and image or credibility.
I wouldn't say that most go straight to DVD. Yes, some which don't get picked up for theatrical distribution end up on home video, but many just never go anywhere after that. A lot of films simply never become available at all. Again, all the above applies there too. Whatever company puts it out on DVD needs to make money or meet the same criteria above. So, yes, many just get shelved, unfortunately.
I could write a book on this so it certainly is not an all-inclusive answer, but hopefully it provides some insight into the wacky world of independent film distribution.
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Among the many journalists, pundits, and prognosticators covering the awards season, Pete Hammond at the Los Angeles Times is one of the best. His column "The Envelope - The Awards Insider" consistently cuts to the heart of the Oscar races.
On Wednesday, in "A dark horse could win the actor race," Hammond tips his hat to the usual suspects in this year's crop of contenders and goes on to spotlight those under the radar. Of particular interest, though, is the fact that these actors have not been under the radar of those who follow independent film.
Even more relevant to us indie fans was Thursday's piece, "Is the reign of indies at the Oscars over?" It continues the discussion we've had over the past few months about the state of packed art houses and the logjam of independent films this fall, and how that might impact the Academy Awards.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has been notifying filmmakers who are on the feature documentary shortlist. According to indieWIRE, reliable sources have confirmed the following ten films:
Tricia Regan's Autism: The Musical
Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War
Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire
Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking
Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight
Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming -- Writing the Wartime Experience
Wejun Chen's Please Vote For Me
Michael Moore's Sicko
Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's War/Dance
Nanking was one of our Top Pick's from this year's Tribeca Film Festival and one of the best and most shocking documentaries we've ever seen. Try to catch it when it opens in theaters on December 12 in selected cities.
The official list will be announced on Monday. A total of 15 films ended up on the list in 2005 and 2006.
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I attended a screening of Beowulf in IMAX 3D on Tuesday night. "What???" you say, "you're an indie guy -- this ain't your kind of movie (I've actually heard those exact words from friends)." Okay, I'll admit it. I really just went because I wanted to be able to witness the cutting edge of movie technology -- Beowulf is the very first Hollywood feature to open simultaneously in IMAX 3D and digital 3D -- but I was dazzled.
Just a couple of points -- first, some have said that only viewers familiar with the epic poem on which it is based will understand it. Well, sorry, I did not know the Beowulf story (I know, I know -- I'm not as literate as I look) and, in fact, thought that I would not "get it," but I did. I had no trouble following the storyline (and the new sexy subplot will no doubt surprise even those familiar with it) .
Second, the motion-capture technology so brilliantly used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express, taking a quantum leap here in Beowulf, had me seriously believing that these were all live-action sequences. The characters did not look animated to me, at least not nearly as much as some critics have indicated. I really believed Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, and John Malkovich were there, fighting the monsters, and that the monsters were real (hehe just kidding, but you get the point...).
I was much more engaged than I expected to be and I sat with jaw open (literally) through the last 20 minutes of the film. My heart pounded when Angelina Jolie made her much-ballyhooed near-naked appearance and I ducked when the CGI arrows came my way (as did the rest of the audience). Brendan Gleeson was a hoot as Beowulf's sidekick Wiglaf and I absolutely loved the tongue-in-cheek nature of the film (which was quite unexpected). Be prepared to laugh -- not at unintentional humor but very well-executed wit. Some of it may go over the heads of many in the PG-13 audience but that's the fun of it.
No, this isn't The Godfather. But it was far more entertaining than most of the dreck out there that pretends to be "art." THIS was art, and I mean that in the literal sense, not "movie" sense. Maybe it's because I'm a guy, and males are visual creatures, but I walked away with an experience to remember.
A note: if you can see this film in IMAX 3D, do whatever you can to make it happen. At the very least you must see it in 3D. If you can only get to a theater showing it in 2D you might as well not bother, as far as I'm concerned. And, whatever you do, do NOT wait for the DVD. This film is more about the 3D technology than anything else and it would have dazzled me even without the well-executed storyline, but it had both. Beowulf is what a big movie is supposed to be -- literally breathtaking.
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We have been following the progress of Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe for close to two years. It was one of our Top Picks from this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and earlier we posted reports from the World Premiere, pictures from the red carpet beforehand and Q&A afterward, video of the Q&A, answers to questions about the film, and an extensive review.
Back in May we reported the news that the film had been acquired for U.S. distribution by industry leader ThinkFilm. Then the waiting game began, and the rumors, and the speculation about when the film would see the light of day. So it was with great pleasure that we were finally able to report that The Air I Breathe will hit theaters on January 25, 2008.
Today some new large resolution stills were made available. Pictured are Sarah Michelle Gellar, Andy Garcia, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, and Emile Hirsch.
Click the thumbnails -- depending on the size of your screen, you may have to click the pic again after you get to the image to view them full size
Gellar, Gellar & Garcia
Whitaker, Bacon & Delpy
Fraser & Gellar, Fraser & Hirsch
Hirsch, Garcia
Bacon
Whitaker, Garcia
Gellar
Courtesy THINKFilm
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Several days ago, we discussed how the writers strike could help the independent film industry. Now, the Village Voice's Anthony Kaufman posits just the opposite -- that there is a downside to the writers strike's effect on indies, especially as an impending actors strike begins to loom large.
That said, this writer notices the silver linings pointed out towards the end of the piece, which agree with our premise. "Entertainment attorney Andrew Hurwitz, for example, says several of the major pre-strike studio projects could collapse because their scripts, written by WGA members, are not as polished as they need to be," Kaufman says."Without the chance for rewrites, the projects may be abandoned and the actors freed up for indie films ready to go with scripts written by non-WGA members."
Kaufman also notes, "If the strike continues...independents may have the ultimate upper hand. Interim agreements—waivers offered to non-Hollywood signatories—have been used as an effective tool on the part of unions to keep their members working."
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As readers of this blog know, we have attended the SXSW Film Festival for the past several years and will be there in 2008. While in Boston last month, SXSW Festival Producer Matt Dentler took part in a video interview with Alyssa Hale from OurStage to discuss the finer points of festival submissions. Hopefully the things they discuss can be of use to filmmakers new to the festival circuit and of interest to film buffs in general.
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Yesterday, we posted a video (Writers Strike 101) to serve as a short, basic primer into the issues surrounding the current writers strike.
This is a slightly more serious and no less dramatic discussion, which should leave no question in anyone's mind as to what this is all about.
So let's call this Writers Strike 102.
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We've written a bit about the writers strike, but for the most part the issues tend to be beyond the scope of what many readers seem to be interested in. Perhaps, though, it's because they're complicated on the face of them. In that spirit, let's keep it simple.
So let's call this Writers Strike 101. Also see Writers Strike 102.
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I attended the East Coast Premiere of Jon Artigo's Still Green at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Wednesday, November 7. I'd actually seen the film already at the New Hampshire Film Festival a few weeks earlier and posted a report and brief review of the film at the time. So this will be more of a report on the event itself.
At the previous screening, only the writer and producers had attended. Florida was another story. It was amazing how many people associated with the film were able to make it. Most of the large ensemble cast came, none of whom had been in New Hampshire, as well as director Jon Artigo, who hadn't been there either. So I met them all for the first time. Lots of family members showed up too and, since so many cast and crew are from Florida, it was a wild and crazy scene. Not to mention that many were seeing each other for the first time since the film was shot two years ago. It felt more like a family reunion than a film premiere. The ones whom I'd already met included producers Doug Lloyd, Georgia Menides (who also wrote the film), Andrea Ajemian, and Paul McKinney, along with several family members. But many other brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins made it to Ft. Lauderdale, turning it into a real party atmosphere.
Some of the actors had seen the film in earlier cuts but most were seeing this version for the first time. To me, that's the most fun of film festivals -- sitting with the cast & crew knowing that they are seeing it for the first time as well, seeing and hearing their reactions. Nothing else compares and it's one of the reasons I regularly encourage readers to try and get to a festival sometime.
All screening attendees, audience members included, were invited afterward to Revolution, a legendary 3000-capacity club in the heart of downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Even those under 21 were welcome at the all-ages venue, which included a number of local high school students who had been visited by cast members over the past few days. The celebration also served as the premiere party for the new CD from American Idol's Vonzell Solomon, who has a cameo in the film. Her performance was breathtaking. A long set by Self Run Will followed, a raw rock band who have a song featured on the Still Green soundtrack. The party lasted until 2 AM. A number of us hardier ones headed to The Pourhouse for an after-afterparty.
On Thursday I headed over to the Doubletree Galleria, the official festival hotel, to sit down with lead actor Noah Segan (Brick). I did have the chance to talk to several of the actors the night before at the screening and party but it was difficult to really have a meaningful conversation with all that was going on, and Noah was one of the few I didn't have the chance to speak with. He plays Sean in the film, and is one of the characters with whom I really had a personal connection. Producers Doug Lloyd, Georgia Menides, and Paul McKinney were present as well. We sat outside by the water and chatted for about an hour and a half about his blossoming career as well as the experience of working on Still Green. The producers and I basically picked up where we left off in New Hampshire.
Thursday afternoon at 5 PM was the second screening of Still Green at the festival. All cast and crew who'd attended the night before were there for this one as well, minus the horde of family members and friends. A few returned and some new guests arrived, but it was a much more intimate group.
Cast and filmmakers went onstage to introduce the film, as they had done the night before. Even though this was my third time seeing the film I still saw and heard and noticed things I hadn't before. Still Green is definitely a movie that one will appreciate even more with each successive viewing.
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Back in March I attended the World Premiere of Borderland at the SXSW Film Festival. It was an exciting experience. Prior to the midnight screening, director Zev Berman personally introduced himself to all the patrons waiting outside in the pouring rain as the previous film ran late.
Seeing a scary film at midnight is bad (or good) enough but what made this horror film so horrifying is that it all happened. Borderland is based on the true story of ritual sacrifice killings conducted by a group of drug dealers in Mexico a few years back. I had been seeing many films at the last few festivals which were very hard to watch, and this was no exception. Fortunately, we all knew that going in.
Borderland did not disappoint. As I stated in my report afterward, it was one of the most gruesome films I've ever seen. It was also thoroughly entertaining.
Without needing to clear the theater for a screening afterward, a Q&A session with director Zev Berman and cast members Rider Strong and Brian Presley ended close to 3 AM. But we could have stayed all night. All lingered to chat with the audience members and take pictures.
Rider Strong (Boy Meets World, Cabin Fever) is one of those actors who, having started very young, has such a naturalistic acting style that his performance here was frightening on many levels. In reality, he's an extremely bright, sensitive young man and truly a delight to talk to.
Our friend Kristina Valencia caught up with Rider recently to chat about his life both onscreen and off. In the wide ranging interview, he also discusses his writing, poetry, and an upcoming project with his brother Shiloh which is already making waves.
Check out the interview, and be sure to check out Borderland as it arrives at a theater near you -- the film opened yesterday as part of the After Dark Horrorfest, 8 films playing for one week only at 350 theaters across the US.
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I attended a screening of The Cake Eaters at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival last night. The Cake Eaters is legendary actress Mary Stuart Masterson's directorial debut and was the festival's "Centerpiece Screening." They turned it into a full-blown celebration. The night began with a film retrospective of Mary's best work. It got a huge ovation. Then she took to the stage, along with writer Jayce Bartok (who also acts in the film). They introduced the screening. Afterward they returned for a lively Q&A. To cap off the night, there was an elegant party hosted by the festival with Mary as the guest of honor. There was great music, food, and wine, and we all became cake eaters, of course. With warm chocolate syrup -- luscious.
I had attended the World Premiere of The Cake Eaters at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, so this was actually my second time seeing it. It's the perfect indie -- small (read: low budget), all shot on location in upstate New York (rustic countryside, backwoods farmhouse setting), natural lighting, character driven, shot somewhat in real time, with train whistles and big dogs and peeling paint. At its heart it's a very sweet love story which basically focuses on two couples -- one very young and experiencing their first encounter (Kristen Stewart and Aaron Stanford) and one in their golden years still keeping the flame alive (Elizabeth Ashley and Bruce Dern). An incredible ensemble cast surrounds them, including writer Bartok and the sublime Melissa Leo. Along the way there is loss and sorrow, but it's never too heavy. The Cake Eaters engages and leaves you with a tear in your eye and a smile on your face.
Ashley and Dern show what true veterans of the cinema can bring to a film. And Kristen's performance is simply breathtaking. She plays a girl with a neurological disorder (similar to Muscular Dystrophy or MS) and audiences believe she really has it -- that's how convincing she is.
I have little doubt it will get picked up for distribution. For one thing, it has major names attached to it (especially Mary, Elizabeth Ashley, Bruce Dern, Melissa Leo, and the amazing Kristen Stewart). It's a feel-good film in a time of dark indies. Very mass appeal. Audiences will love it.
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For the most part, we haven't written much about the writers strike here although we've been following it pretty closely. Even those with very little knowledge about the business know that the WGA (Writer's Guild of America) is on strike against the producers, mainly over the issue of "new media" -- writers want to get paid for their work being distributed via the Internet, mobile phones, etc. The politics is something left for another discussion. But I've been asked what, if any, effect this will have on the independent film industry so I thought it might be worth taking a look at it.
The greatest impact of the writer's strike will be, at least in the short term, on television. First affected will be the daily shows like late night talk shows, which depend on writers on a daily basis. They are already going into reruns. Most network shows have several weeks in the can, so they should be able to run with new shows through December or January. Some not only have several shows in the can but also completed scripts they can still shoot, so they can continue filming, although they won't be able to do rewrites or edits except for time. Even some of the midseason replacement shows, mostly set to debut in January, will still be able to air at least a few episodes or delay their debuts somewhat. There really won't be a serious problem until February sweeps. Network shows may not have anything new at that point and midseason shows may not either. What will go on are shows like American Idol, so Fox won't be as badly affected since that was set to debut in January anyway. News shows are also not affected, like Dateline NBC. So look for reruns, reality shows, and news and specials to fill the schedule.
Of course, I'm basically a film reporter and the writers strike will affect film production as well, but it will impact studio films more than independent films. I basically cover indies, and they will be least affected in a negative way. I say negative because the writer's strike may actually end up benefiting indie film production, but that is a complicated and delicate set of circumstances which would have to take place.
As Variety reports, the studios are in relatively good shape for now. But that could change as the strike drags on. Eventually the diminishing catalog of studio films completed or under production and/or scripts in the can might cause distributors to look to film festivals like Sundance with a bit more interest. Indies which might not otherwise have gotten picked up for distribution would look more attractive as studio films dwindle in number and/or quality.
Not only might indies get picked up with more fervor but, backing up in the timeline, films could be greenlit or moved along in production for the same reason. A-list directors and actors may become available. Scripts which might otherwise have been tossed or overlooked might come off the pile and take on more importance. Other projects which have been sitting on the shelf might be dusted off. Financiers with money to invest might be more willing to put their money in true indies as opposed to those coming out of the specialty divisions like Fox Searchlight. In short, a prolonged writers strike that would gradually put a damper on studio film production might cause indies to progressively replace the lack of product in the marketplace. And that, at least as far as independent filmmakers are concerned, could be a good thing.
Posted by phileysmiley at 01:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why do some independent films, after being picked up at a film festival, take so long to go from acquisition to release? Welcome to the wild wacky world of film distribution. I've been doing this a long time and the mysteries of why films are released where and when is often a closely guarded secret and involves money and politics, for the most part.
Mostly it has to do with a crowded marketplace and other films that the distributor has on its calendar. Financiers and distributors obviously want to make a profit, or at least earn back their investment, but they also want to stand out in a crowded field, get critical acclaim and maybe awards attention, and they want to avoid cannibalization -- competing or getting in the way of other releases of their own that are in the works.
There are both good and bad reasons for summer release, fall release, end of year release in time for academy awards, beginning of year, and spring. In general, especially for a film seeking awards attention, the beginning of the year is traditionally a wasteland whose films are forgotten by fall. And summer is crowded with blockbusters. For a small indie, spring and fall are usually best.
Let's take Snow Angels, for example. The film was picked up by Warner Independent Pictures following the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and will be released on March 7, 2008. Why so long? There were particular advantages and disadvantages for this film to be released in spring 2007, summer 2007, fall 2007, winter pre-Dec. 31, and winter post-Jan. 1.
I believe that spring 2007 would have been too soon -- there would not have been enough time to mount a proper marketing campaign and fit it into the schedule. Summer is generally a dumping ground for indies, especially dark ones, competing with the studio blockbusters. Not to mention it's a winter-themed film.
One can only conclude that the schedule for this fall was just too crowded. Looking back on the year, and this fall in particular, it is now being acknowledged almost universally that these were the worst few months ever for independent film because there was just too much out there. The idea of releasing a film like this at this time may have made sense at one point but I have little doubt that if it had been released this year it would have been a disaster.
Yes, fall is generally the best time for a small indie like this, but there were just way too many films like this being released over the past few months -- small, thoughtful, dark indies were everywhere and people just didn't go to see them. That leaves winter, and the pre-New Year's Day holiday season is not the time for dark movies either. If a too-crowded calendar or lack of marketing dollars precluded them from releasing it in time for academy consideration this year, then the next logical time is late winter or spring. That pushes it into 2008, and hence we end up in March.
I certainly don't pretend to speak for the filmmakers or distributor but, while others seem baffled by the "delay," it certainly makes sense to me.
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I receive many messages via email, MySpace, IMDb, and various other means of communication and am always so appreciative of folks taking the time to write. The feedback is incredibly valuable and I love hearing what readers have to say about independent film. In most cases, they ask questions which I'm all too happy to answer. Occasionally I feel that one so rings true with me that I feel it may resonate with you as well.
One recent message said, "I don't read any reviews from critics or viewers, I just go and form my opinion completely void of the thoughts of others." This describes me to a "T" as well. I generally like to know next to nothing before seeing a film. It's one reason I love going to festivals -- so little has been written about them anyway.
Readers tell me that they have great difficulty remembering details after they've left the theater, and wonder how I'm able to do so. The fact is, I have the same problem. So I take notes when I see films which I'm going to review, otherwise they'd be very generalized. I also find that if I don't write my review within the first 48 hours or so, I'm doomed.
I'm often asked if I have favorites. I do have a list, although not necessarily complete or in order, on my MySpace page. I tend to like psychological thrillers with a time shift or alternate reality element, like Donnie Darko and Jacob's Ladder. The Butterfly Effect fits in there along with The Jacket, Dead End, the Final Destination series, The Time Machine, Dust Factory, etc. Even The Wizard of Oz is like that -- did it really happen or was it only a dream? Was it just in his/her head? I love films that make you think. Hitchcock is the best. Of course, classics like Citizen Kane have to be on my list as well. I'm very partial to indies which move me emotionally. Mean Creek is among the best. Cashback is one of my favorites from the last couple of years.
One reader asked if I have a list of all the films I've seen. I had a friend who used to keep a list of every film he saw. But I see so many. I saw over 30 at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006. I've probably seen over 200 since the start of last year. The only way to know what I saw would be to pull out the booklets from each festival and go through them to see what I selected. Even then, I often see titles mentioned or someone says something about a film and I don't even realize that I saw it. Some festivals are just a blur -- I see 10-20 films and only remember 3 or 4. And that's only if I write reviews or articles about them.
It's funny, I could never rattle off a list of favorite films until people started asking me. I have gotten so used to being asked that I finally had to start thinking of what they are! But then I see a list of films and suddenly remember one that I loved and forgot about. I just see so many. I guess the ones I mentioned above would qualify. And I'm sure that right after I post this entry I'll remember another favorite.
Posted by phileysmiley at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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