Thompson on Hollywood

Oh The (Female) Horror! Viscera Film Festival Launches in LA

The Viscera Film Festival, featuring horror shorts made by femme directors, launches this weekend in Los Angeles. Running the gamut from hard-to-watch gross-out gore to slowly suspenseful, this festival proves that “women can be just as twisted, emotionally grinding, terror-inducing and splatter spewing as men," states the Viscera Fest.

By Maggie Lange
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July 13, 2011 7:47 AM
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Telluride Film Festival: Last Call for Submissions this July; Fest Runs September 2-5

The Telluride Film Festival issues its last call for 2011 submissions. The deadlines to submit to this class-act four-day festival over Labor Day weekend (September 2-5) are:SHORTS AND STUDENT FILMS DEADLINE: FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011 FEATURES DEADLINE: FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

By Sophia Savage
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June 29, 2011 8:07 AM
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Palm Springs International ShortFest: The Road to Hollywood, Oscar

After taking part in an engaging trade media panel for some of the 400 or so shorts filmmakers who flocked to the 2011 Palm Springs International ShortFest, I not only walked away with a stack of screeners, but when I returned to the Ace Hotel in the baking heat for a cool dip, realized with horror that many of the same filmmakers were lounging in the pool.

By Anne Thompson
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June 28, 2011 6:32 AM
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AFI-Discovery Channel's Silverdocs Fest Announces Audience Award Winners: Donor Unknown, Mr. Happy

AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Fest's Audience Award winners for 2011 are Jerry Rothwell's Donor Unknown, which won the Feature Audience Award, and Matt Morris's Mr. Happy Man, which won in the Shorts category. Award-winning and Festival favorites will play at the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center this week along with Guggenheim Retrospective screenings.

By Sophia Savage
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June 27, 2011 5:10 AM
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LAFF Jury: Lynn Shelton, Daniel Waters, Jeff Malmberg, Lisa Gay Hamilton

The Los Angeles Film Festival's 2011 narrative competition jurors include director Lynn Shelton (Humpday, My Effortless Brilliance; pictured), Eric Nakamura (Head/Founder of Giant Robot), and screenwriter Daniel Waters (Heathers, Batman Returns).

By Anne Thompson
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June 15, 2011 7:50 AM
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Picton Picturefest's Inaugural Event: Lineup Opens with Swinton Curated Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

A film fest and "cinephile retreat," the inaugural Piction Picturefest in Prince Edward County, Ontario, will run from July 7-10. The event will include films, workshops, youth education and camping.

By Sophia Savage
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June 7, 2011 5:28 AM
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Cholodenko Hosts AFI Directing Workshop for Women Showcase

The AFI has long supported fattening the ranks of working women directors--still too thin--with its Directing Workshop for Women. Cari Beauchamp covered Monday night's showcase of recent grads, hosted by Lisa Cholodenko.Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are All Right) opened Monday's AFI showcase at the DGA Theatre and soon had the audience laughing with the tales of serving as an assistant at AFI in the early 90s. She claimed she was totally inept at her job, but used the opportunity to thoroughly study the resumes and proposals of all the applicants to the DWW to learn how to “present” herself, Having learned her lessons well, she got into Columbia where she earned her MFA and was off and running.

By Cari Beauchamp
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May 11, 2011 12:11 PM
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Cannes 2011: Fourplay: Tampa Debuts in Directors’ Fortnight

Debuting in this year's Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is Kyle Henry's 17-minute short Fourplay: Tampa, which is the second of four Fourplay shorts set in different cities in Henry's omnibus film. Tampa premieres on May 20 at 11:30 am. Produced by Jason Wehling, the film's executive producers are REM frontman Michael Stipe and Jim McKay. Fourplay: San Francisco played at OutFest; in March, Henry sent Tampa to Cannes and then when it was accepted. he had to finish it in time. He hopes to assemble the four shorts into an anthology feature and sell it to a distributor.

By Anne Thompson
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May 11, 2011 11:15 AM
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ShortsHD Launches on DIRECTV: Like A Mini Short Film Festival Each Night

Shorts fans and filmmakers rejoice. Shorts International now boasts ShortsHD on DIRECTV. Their HD Extra Pack subscribers can now check out channel 568; a selection of the most popular titles will also be on VOD channel 1568. ShortsHD offers a library of titles from Oscar and international festival circuit winners to CGI animation and "cinematic gems" from around the world. The program will feature a premiere each night, and scheduling will group shorts together in 30 or 60 minute theme blocks, including comedy, docs, thrillers, musical, dramas and animation.

By Sophia Savage
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May 5, 2011 5:06 AM
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SFIFF 54 Day Three: The Colors of the Mountain, Year Without a Summer, Le Quattro Volte

Meredith Brody continues her SFIFF diary, day three:I rush along Fillmore to slip into a 1 p.m. screening of The Colors of the Mountain, too late today to do anything but grab three samosas for $5, so greasy that they turn their paper sack transparent before I reach the theater. Three is more than I need or want, but I’ll be able to turn to someone later today and say “Would you like a samosa?,” a treat unavailable at the movies since the lamentable closure last year of the delightful Bollywood palace the Naz 8 across the bay in Fremont.