iW Insider

iW ALERT | IDFA Awards: "Burma VJ", Girl Talk Doc

IDFA '08 | "Burma VJ" & Girl Talk Doc, "RIP," in Fest Spotlight on IDFA's Awards Night
More at indieWIRE.

iW ALERT | Sony Classics Gets "Loud"

Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim's "It Might Get Loud" has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, the company confirmed Monday afternoon.

More at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | Film Community, Fest Organizers Defend Sundance Amidst Talk of Boycott

With about a week to go before programmers internally lock the lineup for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, organizers are carefully navigating calls for a boycott of the annual event.

Full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | With "Gomorrah" and "Il Divo," Italy In Spotlight at 21st European Film Award Nominations

Get the full list of nominees at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | Latest Goldwyn Deal: "Free Style" from Rigel

In its third deal of the week, Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning at least a 500 screen theatrical release in February '09 for William Dear's "Free Style" from Rigel Entertainment.

Full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | HBO Scores Obama Doc

Breaking indieWIRE news about the HBO deal for the documentary about President-elect Barack Obama.

Full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | MSNBC Deal for "Witch Hunt" Ahead of AFI Fest Debut

Get the full story at indieWIRE.

iW UPDATE | Timely and Provocative, Van Sant's "Milk" Stirs Californians at the Castro

indieWIRE: ALERT ++ 10.29.08

In a scene reminiscient of numerous moments from Gus Van Sant's new film, "Milk," guests arrived at the Castro Theater last night in San Francisco to the sights and sounds of a boisterous demonstration in front of the landmark venue. "Unfair! And wrong! No on 8!" a sizable crowd continually chanted, pausing occasionally to cheer an arriving celeb. The specter of activism, hope and change hung heavy over the event last night in SF, coming just a week before the U.S. presidential election. The film itself, about iconic activist Harvey Milk, is directly political, depicting the birth of a gay rights movement more than thirty years ago in an around the San Francisco neighborhood that houses the Castro Theater.

Read the full dispatch from San Francisco at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | IDA Nominees Announced

The five feature film nominations were announced today for the International Documentary Association's 2008 IDA Documentary Awards competition. Winners will be feted on December 5th at the Directors Guild, in a ceremony hosted by Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. [Brian Brooks]

Get the full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | Weekend Estimates: "Changeling," "Noah's Arc" Among Year's Best Per-Theater-Averages

Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" found huge numbers amidst an impressive crowd of weekend openers, according to initial estimates from Rentrak early this afternoon. The Universal release grossed $501,615 from just 15 screens, averaging $33,441. Considerably more surprising, though, was the film that fell just behind "Changeling." "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom," the film adaptation of the Logo series, grossed $161,302 on 5 screens, averaging an astounding $32,260. Other weekend openers, Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" (Sony Pictures Classics). Tomas Alfredson's "Let The Right One In" (Magnolia) and Philippe Claudel's "I've Loved You So Long" (Sony Classics) also saw winning per screen averages. [Peter Knegt]

More at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | "Ballast" Leads Gotham Awards With Four Nominations

Lance Hammer's "Ballast" led the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Award nominations, which were announced this morning by IFP. "Ballast" garnered four nods, including Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Breakthrough Director, and Best Breakthrough Actor. The other films feted for Best Feature were Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River," Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York," Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor," and Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler." [Peter Knegt]

Get the full list of nominees now at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | 67 Foreign Language Oscar Submissions Tops Last Year, Sets New Record

A whopping 67 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category at the 81st Oscars, topping last year's record of 63 countries. Announcing the list today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that Jordan has submitted its first entry. The nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2009 and the Oscars will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009.

Get the full list at indieWIRE.com and read Anthony Kaufman's recent look at the race.

iW ALERT | Sundance Halts Online Fest Initiative; Short Filmmakers Kept in the Dark by Aggregator Mediastile

The Sundance Film Festival had ended its relationship with new media aggregator Mediastile Inc. after the company repeatedly failed to send royalty payments and traffic reports to Sundance directors that screened films online via iTunes, Netflix and XBox LIVE. Over the weekend, Sundance organizers e-mailed filmmakers to confirm the shift, leaving them to resolve their individual situations with Mediastile, which controls digital rights to their work. The decision affects at least 45 filmmakers who had opted to put their work online after also being accepted to screen at Sundance this year, as well as another crop from the 2007 festival.

Read the full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | "Still Walking," "Goodbye Solo," "The Wrestler" Tops With TIFF Critics, Bloggers

Hirokazu Kore-Eda's "Still Walking," from Japan, was selected as the best film at the Toronto International Film Festival in a poll of film critics and bloggers conducted this weekend by indieWIRE. The story of a family coming together on the anniversary of a son's passing, the film is Kore-Eda's latest after the acclaimed "Nobody Knows." "Still Walking" edged out Ramin Bahrani's "Goodbye Solo" and Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," two new American films produced and financed independently. More than 30 writers - ranging from AO Scott and Roger Ebert to B Ruby Rich and Karina Longworth, were surveyed. The group singled out "The Wrestler" star Mickey Rourke as the best actor by wide margin, while Agnes Varda's "Les Plages d'Agnes" was chosen as the best documentary at the festival.

Get the full story at indieWIRE.com.

iW ALERT | Sundance Launches VOD Platform; Broderick Talks Distribution

Two items of note this morning from indieWIRE:

+ New Sundance Channel VOD Outlet to Offer Heavy Doc Focus, Will Include Day & Date Theatrical Component
Rainbow Media, owner of IFC, Sundance Channel, AMC and others, is launching Sundance Selects, a new On Demand service -- heavily focused on non-fictions films -- that will include some day & date VOD/theatrical distribution. Sundance Selects will sit somewhere in between Rainbow's existing IFC in Theaters, which offers day & date VOD/theatrical releases of new films, and Festival Direct offering VOD exclusive premieres. More than 50% of the Sundance Selects titles will be documentaries, according to Rainbow.
Full article at indieWIRE.com.

+ First Person | Peter Broderick: "Welcome To The New World of Distribution," Part 1
"Welcome to the New World of Distribution," writes Peter Broderick today at indieWIRE, "Many filmmakers are emigrating from the Old World, where they have little chance of succeeding. They are attracted by unprecedented opportunities and the freedom to shape their own destiny. Life in the New World requires them to work harder, be more tenacious, and take more risks. There are daunting challenges and no guarantees of success. But this hasn't stopped more and more intrepid filmmakers from exploring uncharted territory and staking claims."
Complete First Person article at indieWIRE.com