by Joe Gillis, Mar 17 2010 // 8:00 AM
The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced last night at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas. Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories.
Films in these categories, as well as the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second categories were also eligible for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight.
Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Monday, March 22.
SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking, and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards, including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award.
Click through for the complete list of the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Award Winners:
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Posted in: Announcements · Awards · Movies · News · SXSW
Tagged: Awards, Documentary, Film Festivals, Movies, Narrative, Shorts, SXSW
by Matt Raub, Mar 11 2010 // 7:00 AM
While most eyes are on Austin, Texas this week for SXSW, many people on the East Coast eagerly await a closer show as this year’s Tribeca Film Festival kicks off on April 21st. The festival is mainly for indie pictures, rather than the larger, blockbuster films, but is also a great place for up-and-coming directors and writers to showcase their work.
With the festival coming up in just over a month, they are already rolling out this year’s schedule and have announced the first 34 films out of a total of 85 feature length and 47 shorts screening at this year’s fest. Among the titles were those submitted to the World Narrative and Documentary competition, as well as the Showcase and Special Events.
Some of the titles look to be quite intriguing, and could include some of the bigger names of the next decade. Be sure to check out the first 34 films to be announced after the jump, and keep it here, as we bring you extensive coverage of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
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Posted in: Announcements · Documentary · Drama · Events · Film Festivals · Filmmaking · Indie · Movies · News · Tribeca
Tagged: Doctor Zhivago, Documentaries, Film Festivals, Filmmaking, Indie Films, International, Movies, New York, Shorts, Tribeca Film Festival
by Matt Raub, Feb 18 2010 // 3:00 PM
Every once in a while, we’ll get an opportunity to check out a new indie film from out of nowhere and get blown away by it. Sadly, this happens less often than we would like, but in this case, it was completely true.
We recently got to check out the short film The Legacy, written and directed by Mike Doto, about a boy who discovers that his father is the world’s greatest superhero. The film is, by all definitions of the word, fantastic. It captures some of the elements that made the original Superman films so great, without treading into campy territory.
With that in mind, we got a chance to sit down with the writer/director of the film, Mike Doto, about what it took to make the project, and where he goes from here.
The Flickcast: With a concept like The Legacy, what drove you to this idea? Were you a big comic fan growing up? If so, which books were you inspired by the most?
Mike Doto: For The Legacy I really wanted to get back to the roots of why I wanted to be a filmmaker to begin with. I feel like I grew up in a time when movies really connected with kids and I’ve never forgotten the impact that those films have had on me.
Most of these films starred a young protagonist that I could relate to quite easily, films such as E.T., Goonies, Wargames, D.A.R.Y.L., The Last Starfighter, and Back to the Future. What I’ve learned is that these weren’t just kid movies, these were movies for all ages, they appealed to the both the young and the young at heart. So I thought about what movie I would have written when I was 10-years-old and I decided that I probably would have written a movie about being a superhero.
Superman was my boyhood hero so naturally that’s the hero I wanted to emulate. In thinking further about the Superman story I decided that it would be more effective to write a film about the relationship between the father and the son since this is at the heart of the Superman character. I actually wasn’t a big comic book fan growing up. I was a huge fan of the Superman movies, but I didn’t really spend much time reading comics.
I would much rather dress up as a superhero or play with my action figures and imagine what that world would be like to live in. Even though a camera wasn’t rolling, I think this was the start of my filmmaking career although I didn’t realize it at the time.
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Posted in: Action · Comics · Exclusive · Fan Films · Fandom · Film Festivals · Filmmaking · Indie · Interviews · Movies · News · Video
Tagged: Comics, Exclusive, Film Festival, Interview, Kryptoman, Mike Doto, Movies, Shorts, Superhero, Superman, The Legacy
by Matt Raub, Jul 6 2009 // 9:45 AM
With next week’s release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hitting theaters on Wednesday, there seems to be more and more focus on what trailers Warner Bros. will attach to the film, seeing as how this is the biggest release for the studio this year. One film that seems to be attracting most of the excitement is the adaptation of the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.
The original trailer hit a few months back, which looked pretty cool. From there, it seemed to have developed it’s own growing fan base, so you can imagine how excited the rest of the world will be in moments leading up to the Harry Potter film.
With that trailer we are also expected to get a first look at Robert Rodriguez’s Shorts. Starring James Spader, William H. Macy, and Leslie Mann, the film is about a magical rock that grants wishes to a small town called Black Falls. This will more than likely fall on the side of Rodriguez’s Sharkboy and Lava Girl, rather than his work with Tarantino and Grindhouse.
Finally, there will be a new trailer for the Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. project Sherlock Holmes. The film looks to be a blockbuster, which is different for Ritchie, but should only add to the pile of Downey’s Iron Man popularity. See all the footage with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Wednesday, July 15.
Posted in: Action · Fantasy · Movies · News · Trailers
Tagged: Guy Ritchie, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Rodriguez, Sherlock Holmes, Shorts, Where the Wild things Are