Festival News

Full Cannes Slate Announced

It’s spring and it’s almost time for the Cannes Film Festival. So what’s playing? The announcement came today. There are plenty of familiar names on this list. By the way, I believe “Fruitvale,” listed in the Un Certain Regarde section, has been renamed “Fruitvale Station.” That was a big hit at Sundance, so look out...
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Thriller “Zulu” To Close Cannes

I keep looking, but I think this is only the second announcement we’ve gotten about the Cannes Film Festival. We heard last month that Baz Lurhmann’s “The Great Gatsby” would open the festival, and today we get news that the closing night film will be “Zulu,” a thriller directed by Jerome Salle. Forest Whittaker and...
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SXSW Audience Awards Laud “Cheap Thrills,” “Short Term 12,” “The Short Game”

SXSW, which is becoming Sundance Southwest, wrapped up this weekend with the audience awards. “Cheap Thrills,” which won the Midnighters award, was one of the most talked about movies of the fest. It was directed by E.L. Katz and stars Laura Covelli, Elissa Dowling, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, and Sara Paxton. Keep an eye out...
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“The Great Gatsby” To Open Cannes Film Festival

When we heard last year that “The Great Gatsby” had been bumped from its December 2012 holiday season slot, the speculation was that there was trouble with the film or that it didn’t measure up to the other high quality movies opening at that time. Well, whatever the reason, the delay paid off in one...
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Sundance London Announces Lineup

Did you miss this year’s Sundance Film Festival because, well, you lived on another continent, perhaps Europe? Well, if that is indeed the case, then don’t worry, the second Sundance London gets underway next month. The festival runs from April 25-28, taking place at London’s O2 arena. American and British indie films that played at...
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SXSW Adds “Much Ado,” Reveals More of Lineup

If you’re a Joss Whedon fan, then you may want to get to SXSW this year–unless you’re a Joss Whedon fan who only wants to see the Whedon interpretation of sci-fi/fantasy type stories. In that case, relax at home because the Whedon movie that will play at SXSW is his low budget, black and white...
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Sundance Award Winners!

Well, another visit to Park City has all but ended, with tonight’s announcement of awards for films in the competition section (remember, a lot of the movies with bigger names you may have been hearing about were probably screening out of competition). “Fruitvale” was the big winner on the dramatic side, with ceremony host Joseph...
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Sundance Big Deals: “Don Jon’s Addiction” and “The Way, Way Back”

I usually don’t like to spend a lot of time writing about all the deals that are made at Sundance, mostly because a) it’s really boring for readers (unless you’re really deep into the business side of the industry) to just keep listing “Oddball Distribution just paid $2 million for the foreign rights to ‘Thoughtful...
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Calendar Alert! “Gravity,” “Machete Kills,” “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”

  Time to get out your movie planning calendars–today we have dates for movies you’ve heard about for a while but just didn’t have definite release dates and an early appearance by one movie that does have a definite date. “Gravity,” the long-awaited space odyssey from Alfonso Cuaron, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is...
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Sundance Spotlight, New Frontier, and Midnight Selections Announced

More Sundance news! Today we have the list of films that will appear in the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier categories, which are not part of the competition. You may see some familiar titles here, as a number of these have played at other festivals, for example, Jeff Nichols’s “Mud” and Sarah...
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Sundance Announces Competition Lineup

Hey now! Are you sick and tired of awards talk already? Longing for film festivals, where it’s more about watching movies than placing odds on them? Well, then, here’s something that will perk you up: the narrative and documentary films that will be in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The fest runs from...
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Toronto International Film Festival Award Winners

The Toronto Film Festival isn’t as big on awards as the Venice festival or Cannes or others. Still, their audience award is often a good barometer for how a movie is going to play to the public (probably because Toronto makes seeing the movies easy for real people who represent real movie goers). Both “Slumdog...
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What We’ve Learned About Awards Season So Far

Like many of you, I’m sure, I’ve been eagerly following the reports from the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals, and looking forward to the opening of Toronto next week. This is the time when we start to see the movies that are awards contenders and the ones you’ll hear about a lot over the next...
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Malick Cuts Weisz, Peet, Pepper, and Sheen from “To the Wonder”

Were you excited about the prospect of seeing Rachel Weisz in a Terrence Malick movie? Did you think it was about time Barry Pepper was in such a prestigious project? Have you been wondering when you would see Amanda Peet again? Can you never get enough Michael Sheen? If you were looking forward to Malick’s...
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