San Francisco International Film Festival Winners

 Film Festivals  No Responses »
May 132013
 

Congratulations to the winners of the 56th annual San Francisco International Film Festival!

  • Documentary Feature: A River Changes Course, Kalyanee Mam (Cambodia/USA 2012)
  • Bay Area Documentary Feature: The Kill Team, Dan Krauss (USA 2012)
  • New Directors Prize: Present Tense, Belmin Sölyemez (Turkey 2012)
  • New Directors Honorable Mention: La Sirga, William Vega (Colombia/France/Mexico 2012), The Cleaner, Adrián Saba (Peru 2012)
  • FIPRESCI Prize: Nights with Theodore, Sébastian Betbeder (France 2012)
  • Narrative Short: Ellen Is Leaving, Michelle Savill (New Zealand 2012)
  • Documentary Short: Kings Point, Sari Gilman (USA 2012)
  • Documentary Short Special Jury Prize: Home, Thomas Gleeson (New Zealand 2012)
  • Animated Short: Kali the Little Vampire, Regina Pessoa (Canada/France 2012)
  • Bay Area Short, First Prize: 3020 Laguna St. In Exitum, Ashley Rodholm, Joe Picard (USA 2013)
  • Bay Area Short, Second Prize: More Real, Jonn Herschend (USA 2012)
  • New Visions: Salmon, Alfredo Covelli (Israel/Italy 2012)
  • Family Film: Luminaris, Juan Pablo Zaramella (Argentina 2012)
  • Family Film Honorable Mention: I’m Going to Mum’s, Lauren Jackson (New Zealand 2012), Jonah and the Crab, Laurel Cohen (USA 2012)
  • Youth Work: The Dogmatic, Lance Oppenheim (USA 2012)
  • Youth Work Honorable Mention: Last Stop Livermore, Nat Talbot (USA 2012)
 Posted by at 2:20 pm

New York Indian Film Festival Winners

 Film Festivals  No Responses »
May 102013
 

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 New York Indian Film Festival. I’m sure you’ll all be stars of Hollywood and Bollywood soon!

  • Best Feature Film: ANUMATI (Directed by Gajindra Ahire)
  • Best Director: HANSAL MEHTA (for SHAHID)
  • Best Actor: VIKRAM GOKHLE (for ANUMATI)
  • Best Actress: DEEPTI NAVAL (for LISTEN AMAYA)
  • Best Young Actor: SURAJ NEGI (for HANSA)
  • Best Screenplay: DR. BIJU (for COLOR OF SKY)
  • Best Documentary Film: THE ONLY REAL GAME (directed by Mirra Bank)
  • Best Short Film: KHANNA (directed by Cary Sawney)
  • Best One Minute Cell Phone Film: BOLLYWOOD STYLE (directed by Yi Su)
 Posted by at 9:11 am

Defining a movie as “good”

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 032013
 

While discussing the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi somebody made the comment to me that while they enjoyed it they wouldn’t call it good. They believe that with a documentary there is a separation between the subject of the documentary and the execution of the documentary. In regards to Jiro they felt that the filmmakers should have looked harder into the brothers’ stories which is where the only conflict in the film lived.

That conversation got me wondering if the same distinction should be made for narrative films. And how does one handle rating a film that they find technically competent but didn’t enjoy? Or that formulistic film that is your guilty pleasure? I’ve struggled a few this a few times while trying to rate a movie in Netflix and present a few of the more extreme examples.

A movie that I knew to be good but thoroughly disliked was Rachel Getting Married. Anne Hathaway delivered a great performance. She was so convincing that I wanted to come through the screen and tell her to sit down and shut up. Being in the process of planning our wedding at the time made me even more frustrated at her.

I really enjoyed Crank 2 which my brother called the worst movie he had ever seen. I’m sure the couple of beers I drank while viewing didn’t hurt. While I thought some of the execution was inventive I know that the plot was just a vehicle to deliver the action.

Sometimes there is a movie where you’re not sure what to think. Ebert refused to give the Human Centipede a review saying that “the star rating system is unsuited to this film.” My example is Visitor Q where I wasn’t sure what I had watched (sometimes through my fingers as I was covering my eyes) and didn’t even want to try to describe it amongst polite company.

In the end I decided that Ebert is right in that the star rating isn’t suitable for every film. When there is a question I have taken to trying to rate highly movies that I’d like to see more of like as I’ve found the Netflix recommendation system to be quite good (though I still smart at their abandonment of the friends feature). If I’m ever in doubt I round up.

In the future perhaps I should change the adjective I use when recommending a movie. Calling it “enjoyable” rather than “good”. Or maybe I should just stop using one word to describe films.

 Posted by at 10:22 am

A couple of Indie Intern updates

 Indie Intern  No Responses »
May 022013
 

Just pushed some updates to the production server. Most are behind the scenes fixes but you might notice a few design changes as well. The biggest change is the project page as been rearranged to make better use of space.

Please hit Feedback if you see any bugs or if there is a feature you’d like to see.

 Posted by at 8:12 am

Tribeca Film Festival Winners

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Apr 292013
 

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. I hope to see all of your films on the silver screen.

  • Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia)
  • Best Narrative Feature (Special Jury Mention): Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, directed by Sam Fleischner
  • Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film: Sitthiphon Disamoe as Ahlo in The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt (Australia)
  • Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film: Veerle Baetens as Elise Vandevelde in The Broken Circle Breakdown, directed by Felix van Groeningen (Netherlands, Belgium)
  • Best Cinematography in a Narrative Feature Film: Cinematography by Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen, for Before Snowfall, directed by Hisham Zaman (Germany, Norway)
  • Best Screenplay for a Narrative Feature Film: The Broken Circle
  • Breakdown, written by Carl Joos and Felix van Groeningen and directed by Felix van Groeningen (Netherlands, Belgium)
  • Best New Narrative Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, director of Whitewash (Canada)
  • Best New Narrative Director (Special Jury Mention): Harmony Lessons, directed by Emir Baigazin (Germany, France)
  • Best Documentary Feature: The Kill Team, directed by Dan Krauss(USA)
  • Best Documentary Feature (Special Jury Mention): Oxyana, directed by Sean Dunne (USA)
  • Best Editing in a Documentary Feature: Let the Fire Burn, edited by Nels Bangerter, directed by Jason Osder (USA)
  • Best New Documentary Director: Sean Dunne for Oxyana (USA)
  • Best New Documentary Director (Special Jury Mention): Let the Fire Burn, directed by Jason Osder
  • Best Narrative Short: The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars, directed by Edoardo Ponti (Italy)
  • Best Narrative Short (Special Jury Mention): Yardbird, directed by Michael Spiccia (Australia)
  • Best Documentary Short: Coach, directed by Bess Kargman (USA)
  • Best Documentary Short (Special Jury Mention): Royal American, directed by Michael Scalisi (USA)
  • Student Visionary Award: Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, directed by Stephen Dunn (Canada)
  • Student Visionary Award (Special Jury Mention): Reporting on the Times: The New York Times and the Holocaust, directed by Emily Harrold (USA)
  • Bombay Sapphire Award for Transmedia: Sandy Storyline, created by Rachel Falcone, Laura Gottesdiener, and Michael Premo (USA)
  • Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film: Lil Bub & Friendz, directed by Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner (USA)
  • Tribeca Online Festival Best Short Film: A Short Film About Guns, directed by Minos Papas (USA, UK)

And congratulations to everybody that was accepted (and hopefully attended). That is a very special honor.

 Posted by at 12:32 pm

New film budget feature

 Indie Intern  No Responses »
Apr 162013
 

Just added the ability to print your production budget to PDF from Indie Intern. The PDF will include all budget detail.

As always, please let me know any bugs you find or features that you would fine useful.

 Posted by at 11:45 am

Ann Arbor Film Festival Winners

 Film Festivals  No Responses »
Mar 272013
 

Congratulations to the following winners of the 2013 Ann Arbor Film Festival!

  • Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival: Our Nixon (Penny Lane)
  • The Stan Brakhage Film at Wit’s End Award: I Am Micro (Shai Heredia, Shumona Goel)
  • Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film: Bite of the Tail (Song E Kim)
  • Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film: Skinningrove (Michael Almereyda)
  • Award for Best International Film: 2012 (Takashi Makino)
  • Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film: Da Vinci (Yuri Ancarani)
  • \aut\FILM Award for Best LGBT Film: Encounters I May or May Not Have Had with Peter Berlin (Mariah Garnett)
  • Leon Speakers Award for Best Sound Design: Life is an Opinion, Fire a Fact (Karen Yasinsky)
  • FotoKem/Colorlab Award for Best Cinematography: Despedida (farewell) (Alexandra Cuesta) and People’s Park (Libbie D. Cohn, J.P. Sniadecki)
  • The No Violence Award: I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (Matt Wolf)
  • Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film: Postface (Frédéric Moffet)
  • Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film: Burning Star (Joshua Gen Solondz)
  • The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist: Pareidolia (Maya Erdelyi)
  • Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film: Liberaceón (Chris Vargas)
  • Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker: Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful (Akosua Adoma Owusu)
  • George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award: Flower (Naoko Tasaka)
  • Art & Science Award: Dear Pluto (Joanna Priestley)
  • The Eileen Maitland Award: Lie Back and Enjoy It: A Film About JoAnn Elam (Jessica Bardsley)
  • Award for Best Music Video: Reagan by Killer Mike (Daniel Garcia, Harry Teitelman)

I look forward to viewing some of these films!

Remember that there are only a few days left before the first of April. There is still time to sign up for one free month of Indie Intern with the coupon code SXSW2013.

 Posted by at 4:21 pm

Sun Valley Film Festival Winners

 Film Festivals  No Responses »
Mar 192013
 

Congratulations to the winners, as well as everybody who participated in, the 2013 Sun Valley Film Festival. I’ll bet is was a great time.

  • VISION AWARD WINNER: Sean Baker, Starlet
  • ONE IN A MILLION WINNER (Documentary): Uprising by Fredrik Stanton
  • ONE IN A MILLION WINNER (Narrative): First Winter by Benjamin Dickinson
  • AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER: STUCK by Stuart Acher
  • GEM STATE AWARD WINNER: Craters of the Moon by Jesse Millward
  • HOT SHOT WINNER: Finding Erica Jones by Natalie Markiles
  • SHORTY WINNER: The Test by Anthony DiBlasi
  • MINI MIXED MEDIA WINNER: DoneToMyLove & EastCoastDying by Gayse Director Tyler Williams
  • SCREENWRITER’S LAB HIGH SCRIBE: Life of the World to Come by Cody Tucker
 Posted by at 3:40 pm

Indie Intern Updates

 Indie Intern  No Responses »
Mar 172013
 

I just pushed out a new feature that had been on the to do list for a while. You can now export your production budget to Excel for further modification. Please try it out and let me know what you think.

Remember that you can get a free month of Indie Intern by signing up with code SXSW2013 by April 1st.

 Posted by at 5:53 am

SXSW Winners

 Film Festivals  No Responses »
Mar 162013
 

Congratulations to the audience winners of the 2013 South by Southwest Film Festival!

  • Narrative Feature Competition: SHORT TERM 12
  • Documentary Feature Competition: THE SHORT GAME
  • 24 Beats Per Second: A BAND CALLED DEATH
  • Visions: MAIDENTRIP
  • Narrative Spotlight: ZERO CHARISMA
  • Documentary Spotlight: AN UNREAL DREAM: THE MICHAEL MORTON STORY
  • Midnighters: CHEAP THRILLS
  • SXGlobal: THE PUNK SYNDROME
  • Festival Favorites: THE CRASH REEL
  • Excellence in Poster Design: Kiss of the Damned
  • Excellence in Title Design: Chasing Shakespeare

In celebration Indie Intern is offering one free month if you enter the code SXSW2013 at checkout by April 1st.

 Posted by at 2:17 pm
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