Wednesday, January 10----Narrative films from the European continent are among the most anticipated in the World Cinema Competition: Drama competition at the Sundance Film Festival, which opens next week. Of the sixteen films to be presented in the program section, eight are European productions or co-productions with other nations. The strong presence of European films, and the introduction of new film talents, will have industry executives keeping a watchful eye on Europe during the 10 day ...

Tuesday, January 9----Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas takes on one of the quirkiest roles of his long career in the highly anticipated KING OF CALIFORNIA, which screens in the Sundance Film Festival's prestigious Premieres Section. The film is the directorial debut of writer/director Mike Cahill. Joining Douglas (who won a Best Actor Oscar for his 1980s "greed is good" zeitgeist performance as an amoral stock trader in Oliver Stone's WALL STREET) is rising star Evan Rachel Wood. The accla...

Monday, January 8----The Sundance Film Festival will keep alive the bizarre spirit of the “midnight movie” with its series PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT. The program contains eight films that are likely to shock the bleary-eyed viewer and offer a lively last stop in the nightly film-going circuit. This year’s midnight madness continues a tradition that saw the breakout of such recent landmark films as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, SAW, OLD BOY, and AMERICAN HARDCORE. Cultists, you have found your Su...

Friday, January 5----Pity the poor independent filmmaker who is trying to go to the Sundance Film Festival on the cheap. The Festival has become an industry must, so film distributors, production executives, talent agents and other professionals (all with expense accounts) tend to gobble up almost all the available hotel and condo space, the best tables at restaurants, and the other amenities that exist in crowded Park City. Filmmakers on a budget need to be creative, and this year, official ...

Thursday, January 4----The Sundance Film Festival, which opens two weeks from today with the world premiere of the documentary-cum-animation film CHICAGO 10, has announced that the film LIFE SUPPORT, written and directed by Nelson George, will be its Closing Night gala on Friday, January 26th. The film, which is a world premiere, is a fictionalized account of the true story of a mother who overcame an addiction to crack and became a positive role model and AIDS activist in the black communi...

Wednesday, January 3-----With a little more than two weeks to go until the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, excitement is already building for the prestigious Premieres Section of the event, which includes some of the Festival’s most stellar films. This year, the Festival will present fourteen films in the Premieres section, all world premieres. Sundance Premieres Section: AN AMERICAN CRIME Director: Tommy O’Haver; Screenwriters: Tommy O’Haver, Irene Turner A fictionalized account of the t...

Tuesday, January 2-----One of the highlights of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival is the annual Salt Lake City Gala, to be held on Friday, January 19th. This year, the Festival will present the US Premiere of AWAY FROM HER, the directorial debut of Canadian actress Sarah Polley. Polley, best known for her work in such recent films as THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997), THE LAW OF ENCLOSURES (2000) and her Genie Award-winning performance in MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (2003), co-wrote the screenplay with n...

Thursday, December 28----With documentary films experiencing a commercial and critical peak, the stakes have never been higher (and the rewards greater) for the sixteen American Independent documentary features competing at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Considering the box office clout of such films as AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS in the past year, one can expect some of the most ferocious bidding wars will be unleashed for distribution rights to many of these fil...

Tuesday, December 26----The Sundance Film Festival will see sixteen World Premieres compete in the Festival's prestigious Independent Dramatic Feature Film Competition. It is further evidence of the Festival's critical role as a festival of discovery that all the films in this sixteen-film competition are world premieres, unseen by all but a few close associates and the Festival's programming committee. The anticipation is high, as are the stakes for film distributors in the weeks leading up to...

Thursday, December 21----If another indication of the growing influence of non-fiction film was needed, the prestigious Sundance Film Festival has decided to open its ten-day celebration of indie and international cinema with a documentary film. CHICAGO 10, a factual and fanciful look at the infamous trial of organizers of the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968, a turning point in America’s evaluation of the Vietnam War, will open the Festiv...

Interviews with Matteo Ribaudo (USA) (director) of In the Name of My Father and AMillionDollarMovie.com plus Filmmaker of the week is Garath Crook (UK) of Graphic Quarter Click here to listen to the show Show Notes Industry News watch John Carpenter's Halloween on MySpace InDigEnt ceasing operations Tribeca Film Festival joins forces with ESPN for special sports program in the next year's festival Wesley Snipes gets arrested Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly has finally finished Southland Tales for...

Interviews with Alec Morgan (Writer/Director) Hunt Angels (AUS) and DB Sweeney (Actor/Writer/Director) of Dirt Nap (USA) Industry News Sundance Institute unveils the competition program for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Walmart joins the movie download business Ghost House Pictures for 30 Days webisodes Slamdance announces finalist for Guerilla Gamemaker Competition Movie Memorabilia Auctions on ebay @ darkworld71 Event Wrap Stockholm International Film Festival ...

Wednesday, November 29----The Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced today the 12 finalists for the 2007 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards. These annual awards recognize emerging artists in international cinema and are presented to film directors from four global regions (Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan) to support them in realizing their next projects. The four winners, selected by members of an international jury, will be announce...

Friday, September 15---One of the key human tragedies and human mysteries of the 1970s was the mass suicide of 900 followers of the Peoples Temple, a fundamentalist group that originated in San Francisco and eventually moved into refuge in Guyana. The group's charismatic leader, Jim Jones, was a true enigma....a spiritual leader of immense charisma who had an amazing hold over his followers. Why hundreds of them were willing to commit mass suicide on his orders is one of the mysteries explored...

Friday, June 9---One of the most consistently popular sections at the annual Troia International Film Festival is devoted to American Independents. This year, six films, most having their European premieres at the event, will compete for the Dolphin Award. The films are quite diverse in their genres, directorial styles and use of their regional base. In Anthony Ng’s 212, which had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, a diverse group of twenty-something New Yorkers grasp for...

Tuesday, June 6---New York filmmakers always have the added advantage of shooting in a city that is in itself a major character in their films. No matter the genre, or even the time period, shooting on the New York streets offers an ambience that is instantly recognizable to a world audience (and sorry, cannot be faked on the too-clean streets of Toronto, Chicago or, God forbid, Los Angeles). Anthony Ng, born and raised in Hong Kong, went to the famed New York University Film School, and ins...

Monday, June 5----One of the more anticipated programs at the TROIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is its annual competition for American Independent films. The Festival, over the past 22 years, has been an important showcase for films made outside the Hollywood studio system. This year, six worthy films are competing for the award. The first of them kicks off the section this evening. FLANNEL PAJAMAS, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is unique in two important ways. It...