Film Directing Tips, Film Making Articles and Online Resources for the Independent Filmmaker » Film Festivals

Sundance film festival: how it got its edge back

Peter D. Marshall — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:24:28 +0000

by James Rocchi.

At this year’s Sundance film festival, which played out over 10 freezing days in Utah and came to a close last Sunday, the divide between American cinema and the news stories defining the nation’s mood seemed narrower than ever.

From abuses of military power abroad to the financial meltdown at home, to the long, sad aftermath of hurricane Katrina, real-world concerns were being tackled in challenging and provocative ways by the films in competition. And not only by those in the documentary section, which can be relied upon to respond sharply to recent events. These stories were also being told by dramatic features.

Read the rest of this article from the Guardian.

Sign up now for your own FREE monthly subscription to “The Director’s Chair” filmmaking ezine and get the first 30 pages of my 220 page Film Directing Multi-Media Online course, “The Art and Craft of the Director Audio Seminar.”

iPhone filmmaking to be showcased at Macworld

Peter D. Marshall — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:56:30 +0000

by Jackson Chan.

The iPhone Film Festival will host a screening and Q&A this Friday evening at Macworld | iWorld with an international group of filmmakers who go beyond using their iPhones to capture a pet’s adorable antics or a favorite song at a concert — these filmmakers see their phones as a tool to tell a story. More than 800 films have been submitted to the festival, with the requirement that the film’s footage was shot entirely on an iPhone. A select group of filmmakers will be debuting their new films, and their festival-winning shorts will be screening as well.

Since the iPhone introduced video recording as a feature, a new breed of independent filmmaking has emerged. The short films highlighted at the festival exhibit a lushness that belies the diminutive size of the camera the footage was shot on. With the introduction of 720p HD video recording in the iPhone 4, and subsequently 1080p in the iPhone 4S, filmmakers can shoot high-quality footage on a shoe-string budget. Furthermore, many accessories, such as lens attachments and camera stands, are available for the iPhone, adding to the filmmaking capabilities of the device and allowing for different effects and steadier shooting.

Read the rest of this article from All Voices.

Quietly Radical Mission at Sundance: Supporting Native Filmmakers

Peter D. Marshall — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:29:57 +0000

by Jamilah King.

It’s days before the Sundance Film Festival and Aurora Guerrero is busy. The 40-year-old filmmaker is set to debut her first feature-length project “Mosquita y Mari” at the festival in Park City, Utah, on Saturday, but it’s Wednesday and she finds herself in Los Angeles preparing to get in front of the camera for a television spot on up-and-coming filmmakers to watch.

It’s not exactly a standard Hollywood story. Her independent film is a teenage love story between two Chicana best friends who grow up in South East Los Angeles’ vibrant immigrant community. It relied largely on a grassroots funding campaign to raise money for production. But those facts have helped to lock in her place on the year’s indy film radar. When asked if there’s any one person who helped make all of it happen, she doesn’t hesitate.

Read the rest of this article from Color Lines.

2012 Sundance Filmmakers: Andrew Ahn

Peter D. Marshall — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:26:16 +0000

by Ian Wang.

The Sundance Film Festival is once again upon us, having officially kicked off Thursday, January 19 in Park City, UT. While the bulk of the attention is usually given to feature films, the Shorts Program has also been a cinematic treasure trove, often launching many young filmmakers onto the path of making their first features. Among this year’s shorts are two Asian American filmmakers, Andrew Ahn and Kangmin Kim. Coincidentally, they are both of Korean descent and members of the same 2011 class at CalArts. Hyphen chatted with them briefly this week to learn more about their lives and their films.

First up is Andrew Ahn, a Korean American born and raised in LA’s Koreantown. The child of Asian immigrants, he went to an Ivy League school — in his case, Brown — to study Biology, but switched his major to English and became interested in filmmaking after taking some video production classes. Subsequently he enrolled in the MFA Film Directing program at CalArts and graduated there in May 2011. His previous short film, Andy, won the best narrative short award at the 2011 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Read the rest of this article from Hyphen Magazine.

Top 10 film festivals across the globe

Peter D. Marshall — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:20:57 +0000

from Reuters.

With the Sundance Film Festival starting next Thursday and the Oscars not too far off, the movie buffs at online travel adviser Cheapflights (http:///www.cheapflights.com) have compiled a top 10 list of their favorite film festivals across the globe. Reuters has not endorsed this list:

Read the rest of this article from Reuters.

Movies can change the world, says German filmmaker

Peter D. Marshall — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:12:20 +0000

by Laxmi Birajdar.

The country focus on Germany at this year’s Pune International Film Festival (Piff) is part of the ongoing celebrations of Germany and India’s 60 years of diplomatic relations under the Germany and ‘India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities’ banner.

Inaugurated by the consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany, Leopold-Theodor Heldman on Friday, the session in ‘Country Focus: Germany’ was graced by director of the Hof Film Festival, Germany, Heinz Badewitz, filmmaker Johannes Naber, faculty from Film and Television Institute of India Indraneel Bhattacharya and director of Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune Michael Flucht.

“As we take on the ambitious task of strengthening ties with India across politics, business, science and research, we believe culture, art and especially filmmaking and cinema is a more fitting platform for exchange of ideas. We wish to bring this to India for connoisseurs, especially those in the Oxford of the East,” Heldman said.

Read the rest of this article from Times of India.

The Sundance Diaries: Shorts Filmmakers Take Us Through The Festival

Peter D. Marshall — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:50:25 +0000

from Huffington Post.

Every year the Sundance Film Festival committee singles out a group of filmmakers who usually have day jobs. These are the shorts makers — artists who spend months and even years putting together movies that run under 50 minutes. Often first-time directors, most of these women and men had no reason at the start of their process to believe they’d reach the public at all, much less at the best-known film festival in the country.

This year, 64 shorts were selected from a pool of 7,675 submitted from filmmakers around the world. From now until the festival’s close at the end of January, Huffington Post Culture will be bringing you diary-style multimedia entries from the storytellers, animators and documentarians behind these 64 works, as they navigate a path that’s new to many of them and invisible to most of us. Our first five entries start below (you can go directly to any individual post by clicking on the filmmakers’ names). Dive in!

Read the rest of this article from Huffington Post.

‘Taste for good cinema is created through festivals’

Peter D. Marshall — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:46:43 +0000

by Barkha Mathur.

It was this urge to do something very different which propelled Sameer Nafde to combine his interests in art and culture with work, and the result is Nirzar Film Society. When Sudhir Nandgaonkar, secretary of Federation of Film Society, expressed a desire to set up a film society in Nagpur, Sameer’s name was suggested by his friend and filmmaker Sanjay Surkar.

With a just concluded very successful MyMarathi Film Festival behind him, Nafde shares his thoughts with TOI on NFS and plans for the future.

Read the rest of this article from Times of India.

Filmmaking should be a collective effort

Peter D. Marshall — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:48:20 +0000

by Saranya R.

“It is important that everyone associated with a film knows all the necessary details before the shooting starts,” said Romanian filmmaker Adrian Sitaru, at ‘In Conversation’ organised as a part of the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala, with film critic Rada Sesic.

Sitaru is a jury member for selecting the best debut director for the Hassankutty award. His film Best Intentions was screened at the festival.

“There is no recipe for a good film. A good script does not necessarily lead to a good film,” Sitaru said. Every young filmmaker should try to write good scripts and plan the production effectively so that shooting in a low budget should not be a problem, he added.

“It is hard to tell an ordinary story in an extraordinary manner,” he said. His films sought active audience who can interact with the film. “I shoot my films in the point of view of any subsidiary character so that the audience gets a better understanding of the film, he added.

Read the rest of this article from The Hindu.

Female Palestinian filmmaker steals show

Peter D. Marshall — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:39:12 +0000

by Imran Mojib.

Debutant Palestinian filmmaker Susan Youssef stole the limelight at the Dubai International Film Festival’s glittering award ceremony held on Wednesday, where outstanding talent from the UAE, the Arab world, Asia and Africa were honoured with the prestigious Muhr Awards.

Youssef’s debut film, Habibi, bagged a number of important awards including Muhr Arab Award for the Best Film, Best Actress and Best Editor at the ceremony which also marked closing of the festival.

She also received the Best Feature Film Prize of the International Critics for Arab films from the International Federation of Film Critics, the world’s foremost body of film writers, academics and critics from over 60 countries.

Read the rest of this article from Gulf Today.