Variety reports on a distribution deal for Andres Wood's "Machuca":

Spanish sales consortium Latido has licensed U.S. rights on Andres Wood's Chilean foreign-language Oscar contender "Machuca" to Los Angeles-based Menemsha Films. Menemsha plans an early 2005 platform release, starting in New York. A B.O. smash-hit in Chile, the coming-of-age tale turns on the growing friendship between two schoolboys from different sides of the political tracks as Chile hurtles towards Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973.

They just won't learn. Two years after the disaster that was 'Swept Away,' Madonna is going to act for husband Guy Ritchie in his next film. According to Ananova, the Material Girl is to play a crime boss in 'Revolver,' a London-based gangster film - perhaps a return to surer grounds after forays in the holiday romance genre. She will play alongside Ritchie favourite Jason Statham and Goodfellas's Ray Liotta. Shooting starts this week in the capital," The Guardian reports.

"Politics, and political filmmaking, were the talk of Hollywood this summer, a buzz fueled by the bitterness of the presidential campaign and unexpected box-office success of 'Fahrenheit 9/11.' But on the eve of the election - and, more relevantly, as the holidays approach - studio offerings are reverting to form," Neal Koch reports for the New York Times.

"You know it's going to be a strange year for the Oscars when November is just around the corner and the talk in Hollywood is about 'The Phantom of the Opera.' But the need for buzz, any kind of buzz, is very real, and a sure sign of Oscar desperation," Sharon Waxman offers her take in the New York Times.

"Filmmaker Kibaara Kaugi knows he has ventured into uncertain territory with Kenya's first home-grown movie about the Mau Mau, a divisive subject for Kenyans that still occupies an ambiguous place in their history. Kaugi's film about the forest fighters who launched an uprising against white colonists in Kenya in the 1950s was shot on a shoestring budget of one million Kenyan shillings ($12,290), with many of the cast and crew agreeing to work for nothing," Ross Colvin speaks with the filmmaker in Reuters.

"President Bush (news - web sites) may see himself as defender of democracy and compassionate conservatism but British film fans have voted him 'Movie Villain of the Year,'" Reuters reports from London.

"Besides sinking roots in New Orleans, Mr. Green also managed to edit 'Undertow' - his third feature, after 'All the Real Girls' last year- which was shot in the summer of 2003 and was released last week by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's United Artists unit on a handful of screens after its well-received New York Film Festival premiere. The picture continues Mr. Green's exploration of the South, but introduces some new elements to his languid, lyrical style. Filmed in and around Savannah, Ga., the film follows a teenager (played by the young British actor Jamie Bell, from 'Billy Elliott') and his fragile younger brother (Devon Alan) as they flee the evil uncle (Josh Lucas) who has slit the throat of their father (Dermot Mulroney) in a dispute over a cache of gold coins," Dave Kehr speaks with David Gordon Green in the New York Times.

"Mike Leigh's award-winning abortion drama 'Vera Drake' has scooped seven nominations at this year's British Independent Film Awards. But the Venice winner faces stiff competition from Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed 'Dead Man's Shoes,' which received eight nominations. Also in the running for a clutch of awards are 'My Summer of Love' and the stalker drama 'Enduring Love.' The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 30 November," BBC reports.

"Alexander Payne couldn't stop reading 'Sideways' when he first opened the novel five years ago. The director was on a plane back to the States from the Edinburgh Film Festival, where he had just shown his second movie, 'Election.' 'I was with this chick I was dating, sitting in first class on Virgin,' he recalls over breakfast, relishing the story. 'And she got all pissed off at me later: 'You never talked on that plane ride!'" John McMurtrie speaks with the director in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Studio executives are like members of a sexless marriage - they feel no affection, lust or desire for their movies," so is the point-of-view of David Mamet in The Guardian.

"Extreme weight loss and gain is today's most popular form of stunt acting, with movie stars ballooning up and down as if they've never heard of padding or special effects or just wearing black. Mr. Brody lost 30 pounds for 'The Pianist,' and Charlize Theron gained nearly as much to play a serial killer in 'Monster,'" Caryn James reports for the New York Times.

"'Love's Brother,' a romantic drama directed by Jan Sardi, won the $50,000 grand prize at the Heartland Film Festival," A.P. reports.

In Variety, a report on a new project by Mike Jones, a former indieWIRE editor who has written "Tough Guy" for MGM, the indie film "Even Hand," and a segment for Paul Auster's upcoming "I Thought My Father Was God":

Mike Jones is adapting Michael Simmons' young-adult novel "Pool Boy" for theater and film production shingle East of Doheny. Michael Schultz ("Woman Thou Art Loosed") will direct.

Story is about a rich, arrogant 15-year-old named Brett Gerson. When his dad is jailed for insider trading, Brett's forced to take a summer job assisting the old guy who used to clean his swimming pool.

Book was published this spring by Random House.

"The parallels are hard to miss. In 'Primer,' a pair of moonlighting hardware engineers build a time machine in a garage out of bits and pieces of scrounged material. At one point they even consider dismantling the refrigerator for the Freon and copper tubing. Shane Carruth, 31, the film's director, co-star, editor, continuity boy and just about everything else, spent all of $7,000 on 'Primer,'" Polly Shulman speaks with Carruth in the New York Times.

"The 48th London Film Festival opens on Wednesday with the UK premiere of Vera Drake, a powerful drama about abortion from celebrated British director Mike Leigh," Neil Smith looks at the film for BBC.

Walter Salles' 'The Motorcycle Diaries,' Alejandro Amenabar's 'The Sea Inside' and Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' received top honors at the Hollywood Film Festival's 8th annual Hollywood Awards ceremony Monday night at the Beverly Hilton," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In The New York Times, A.O. Scott looks at three indie films, "Tarnation," "Napolean Dynamite" and "Primer," and considers the future of the filmmakers who made them:

If American independent film, as we currently understand the term, has a founding myth, it is no doubt the story of a young man (only occasionally a young woman) who maxes out credit cards, borrows money from obliging relatives and enlists a bunch of friends in his brave quest to get his movie made. In most versions of the tale - which is by now almost two decades old and has frequently been the subject of the movies themselves - artistic vision and careerist ambition fit comfortably together.

A modest, unusual first film can serve as a calling card and a résumé builder - an entrée into the world of agents, studios executives and other people's money. For audiences, part of the attraction of seeing super-low-budget, out-of-nowhere first features certainly lies in the pleasure of seeing new careers taking root, and of wondering what these fledgling directors will do once they have real budgets to work with. But these movies - shot in places far away from Hollywood or Toronto, with casts who look more like ordinary people than movie stars - also hold out the deeper, more fragile promise of genuine newness. There may be comfort in seeing the same stories recycled again and again, but there is also boredom, which breeds a desire for surprise. Or, failing that, for novelty. In a pinch, we'll even settle for sheer oddity. And when we find it, we may worry that, as young filmmakers migrate from the margins to the mainstream, their precious, strange individuality may be compromised or lost.

FYI/ Film Your Issue, an unprecedented "issue film" competition targeting 7 million-plus college students launches this week on 1200+ campuses nationally, with partners Microsoft, mtvU, Rock the Vote, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Seen as a potent way to engage young adults in public dialogue on contemporary issues, undergraduate students will be invited to submit 30-to-60 second films - live action or animated - on any issue. The competition deadline is March 7, 2005.

Mark Damon, the prolific independent feature film producer and executive, announced today that he is exiting his Chairman and CEO post at Media 8 Entertainment, effective immediately, in order to focus his energy exclusively on film production. With his amicable departure from Media 8, Damon will bring with him several projects he had been developing at Media 8, including "Red Lips", "White Lies", "Higher", and "16 Pleasures". Under his tenure at Media 8, Damon produced the Academy Award-winning "Monster", and completed production on numerous projects, including next year's much-anticipated feature "Upside of Anger" starring Kevin Costner and Joan Allen. Damon's previous producing credits include "9 1/2 Weeks", "The Neverending Story", and "Short Circuit".

At last night's opening of the Starz Denver International Film Festival in Colorado, are "Ray" stars Regina King, Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington at the film's U.S. festival premiere.
[Photo courtesy of Larry Laszlo/Starz Denver International Film Festival]

"The Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene is routinely referred to as the father of postcolonial African cinema. In his new film, 'Moolaade,' the women of a small village in Burkina Faso rebel against female genital mutilation, a subject that may repel squeamish viewers. That would be a shame, not only because of the intrinsic importance of the subject, but because to skip "Moolaade" would be to miss an opportunity to experience the embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its finest," A.O. Scott reviews the film for the New York Times.

"Former US President George Bush, father of the current president, has attacked film-maker Michael Moore as a 'slimeball' for 'Fahrenheit 9/11,'" BBC reports.

"The Oscars have a piece of the Rock. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced Chris Rock will host the next Academy Awards telecast," Anthony Breznican reports for A.P.

"Director Jonathan Caouette set out to make a film about what it's like growing up with a mentally ill mother, then realized he had all the footage he needed. He's been documenting his life since he was 13 years old with his own camera, and 'Tarnation' is a hit," Neva Chonin speaks with Caoutette ahead about the film in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kevin Spacey explains why his Bobby Darin film is personal to Matt Wolf in The Guardian.

"A&E is getting into the independent film business. The cable network has launched A&E IndieFilms, a label aimed at pitching in on the finance and production of documentaries in the spirit of its own nonfiction programming," Andrew Wallenstein writes for the Hollywood Reporter.

"Mobile phone signals will be jammed in French cinemas and theatres to prevent the devices disturbing the audience. The French government has backed a move to install equipment to block signals in cinemas, concert halls and theatres," BBC reports.

"Gil Cates has signed on to produce next year's Academy Awards broadcast, his 12th time overseeing Hollywood's biggest bash," A.P. reports.

"Christopher Reeve, the cinematic Superman who became a real-life inspiration through his painstaking efforts to overcome total paralysis, while speaking out for stem-cell research and other potential treatments, died on Sunday at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 52 and lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y.," Douglas Martin reports for the New York Times.

"The new film from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle opened the British Film Festival in Dinard, France, on Thursday evening," Victoria Lindrea reports for BBC.

"The world's biggest book fair is binding itself closer to the silver screen. For the first time this year, literary agents at the Frankfurt Book Fair are making Hollywood-style pitches on behalf of their authors to film producers," Jeffrey Goldfarb reports for Reuters.

"John Sayles, the independent filmmaker who wrote and directed 'Matewan,' will be a featured guest at the 20th annual West Virginia International Film Festival next month," according to Associated Press.

Cinematheque Ontario senior programmer James Quandt has been awarded the prestigious Special Prize for Arts and Culture from The Japan Foundation for his "outstanding contribution to international cultural exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and other countries." He will be honored on October 7 in Tokyo at the Japan Foundation Awards and Special Prizes ceremony. Following the presentation, Quandt has an audience with Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan at the Imperial Palace. Founded in 1974, the Special Prizes are "awarded to individuals or organizations of impressive achievement." Quandt is the second Canadian to receive the honor. Cinematheque Ontario is a program of the Toronto International Film Festival Group. Toronto International Film Festival Group's website

One month after the announcement of the low budget production entity Trigger Street Independent, TSI has launched its televion arm with the production of two new pilots. The scripted half hour comedy, "Hell on Wheels," written and executive produced by Laura Kightlinger (who also stars in the project), and David Punch for IFC. Also in the works is reality show "Celebrity Charades" with Hillary Swank, Chad Lowe and Bob Balaban for AMC. Balaban will serve as executive producer and director for both projects, with TSI's Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen executive producing. TSI's director of production and development Mark Olsen will oversee all projects. Trigger Street's website

"Cult German film maker Wim Wenders said that a near-fatal experience with drugs when he was a student completely changed his view of life and death. The 59-year-old director of 'Paris, Texas' and 'Wings of Desire' told a ZDF public television programme late Wednesday that he had inadvertently eaten 25 pieces of hash cake, a snack made from hashish, at a student party in 1968," Agence France Presse reports.

"Michael Moore's politically charged documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11' sold about 2 million combined DVD and VHS units Tuesday (Oct. 5), its first day in release, according to industry sources. That Day 1 sales figure and projected Week 1 sales of 3 million combined units set the benchmark as the most successful documentary ever released on home video," Brett Sporich writes for Hollywood Reporter.

"Bush-bashing 'Fahrenheit 9/11' director Michael Moore is bringing his 60-city Slacker Uprising Tour to Utah, a famously Republican state. Not only that, he's going to one of Utah's most conservative towns, Orem, where his scheduled Oct. 20 appearance has many so-called Happy Valley residents fuming," the A.P. reports.

"Fade to Black," a new film about Jay-Z's final solo concert performance at Madison Square Garden one year ago, will be released on November 5th by Paramount Classics. With guest performances by Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, R. Kelly, Foxy Brown, Pharrell, and more, as well as appearances by hip Damon Dash, Rick Rubin, Slick Rick, P. Diddy others, the event was a major hip hop night, captured on film by Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), @radical.media, Marcy Projects Productions and Roc-a-fella Records. It was directed by Pat Paulson and Michael John Warren. The film, narrated by Jay-Z, includes a look at his own career, performance from the legendary concert and a look at insight on the creation of his music.

"I was on the biggest stage in the world, with some of the biggest stars in music, and we pulled off the perfect night. This was the ultimate dream growing up in Brooklyn. I went from Marcy to Madison Square," said Jay-Z in a statement.

"Tourists and political pilgrims can now follow "Che's trail" in Bolivia, which traces Ernesto Guevara's fatal attempt to export the Cuban revolution to one of Latin America's poorest countries. Authorities opened the trail on Monday, allowing visitors to travel the same route through Bolivian villages and remote countryside that Guevara's small band of revolutionaries took before they were defeated by the Bolivian army," Reuters reports.

"Organizers of the first International Festival of Cinema and Gastronomy, to take place Nov. 17-21 in the Burgundy capital of Dijon, on Monday announced a mouthwatering lineup of food-related movies and culinary events. The fest opens, appropriately, with Bertrand Tavernier's 1974 picture 'Que la Fete Commence' (Let the Party Begin), followed by Gabriel Axel's 1987 film about a sumptuous banquet, 'Babette's Feast.' After the evening screening, some 200 invitees will attend a re-enactment of the banquet in the celebrated Burgundy winery Chateau du Clos Vougeot, whose wine was served in the film," Charles Masters gives details in the Hollywood Reporter.

Alessandra Stanley reviews Robert Altman and Gary Trudeau's "Tanner on Tanner," debuting Tuesday on Sundance Channel, for the New York Times:

The 2004 sequel, "Tanner on Tanner," a mock documentary that follows the candidate's fictional daughter as she shoots a documentary about her father, is an astutely deadpan sendup of American filmmaking.

And that shrug of surrender on the part of the film's creators - it was directed by Robert Altman and written by Garry Trudeau - is as telling as the film itself.

The series, which back then seemed so insightful and postmodern now seems almost quaint. The three-part sequel that begins tonight on the Sundance Channel (against the vice presidential debate, of all times) does not bother to poke fun at the system. More humbly, or more cynically, "Tanner on Tanner" reserves tender mockery for filmmakers who take themselves and their art so seriously.

A.O. Scott reviews Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation" in the New York Times. The film debuts at the New York Film Festival on Tuesday and opens at Film Forum in New York on Wednesday:

Mr. Caouette's reconstruction of his childhood is framed by his recent attempts to come to grips with its legacy, and, with the help of his boyfriend, David, to help Ms. Leblanc find a measure of peace and comfort. While his family history still causes him evident pain, he seems to have emerged from it with his sense of humor, his capacity for love and his basic sanity intact.

"Tarnation" is at once the record and the instrument of his survival. It tells a story about the costs of mental illness and denial, which is entwined with the story of a gay man's coming of age in suburban red-state America. More than anything else, though, this self-portrait of an artist offers concrete support for the idea, usually treated either with tiresome sentimentality or weary suspicion, that art can heal some of the wounds that life inflicts.

"It outraged many on its release in 1971 with scenes of extreme violence and telephone sex. But, more than three decades on, 'Get Carter' has been voted by a film publication as the greatest British movie of all time," Jackie Dent reports in The Guardian.

"Talk about a long movie. The Chicago International Film Festival turns 40 this year. If you unspooled the more than 3,000 features and shorts that have been shown at the fest and spliced them end to end, you'd have a single movie that stretches half way around the world," Tom McNamee reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Janet Leigh, the wholesome beauty whose shocking murder in the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller 'Psycho' was credited with making generations of film fans think twice about stepping into a motel room shower, has died. She was 77," John Rogers reports in A.P.

"Woman Thou Art Loosed," from Magnolia Pictures, earned an estimated $2.5 million in 408 theaters this weekend, for an estimated average of $6,127. The film placed at number 6 on the overall weekend top ten among all movies released in theaters. Final numbers will be available tomorrow and indieWIRE's box office column will run on Wednesday.

"Indulge my conceit for a moment and imagine that the young man profiled here had fulfilled his political ambitions in the United States Senate or the Massachusetts State House or, for that matter, had gone on to a career in law or business or academia. In that case — with the amplifications and distortions of presidential politics muted — a clearer sense of Mr. Butler's achievement might emerge, and his evident sympathy for his subject would be a matter for aesthetic quibbling rather than ideological suspicion," A.O. Scott reviews "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" for The New York Times.