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Trains, the Polish documentary that offers “a collective portrait of people in 20th century Europe, capturing their hopes, desires, dramas, and tragedies” has won Best Film in the International Competition section of the prestigious International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The film directed and edited by Maciej J. Drygas was a unanimous choice of the five-person jury. The award comes with a €15,000 cash prize. Trains also earned the award for Best Editing in the International Competition, recognizing Drygas.

“This is a bold and inventive use of archive,” said the jury comprised of Juliana Fanjul, Sophie Fiennes, Grace Lee, Asmae El Moudir, and Kazuhiro Soda. “The film shows us routes to the positive and negative consequences of modern industrial innovation. It harnesses the magic of cinema and as an audience we are haunted by our present historical time, even while we bear witness to the past.”

‘An American Pastoral’

The jury awarded...

Maciej J. Drygas’ “Trains” won Best Film in the International Competition at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, with Miguel Coyula’s “Chronicles of the Absurd” taking the Best Film in the Envision Competition.

“Trains” is a journey through the 20th century told entirely through archival footage. The jury of the International Competition, comprising Juliana Fanjul, Sophie Fiennes, Grace Lee, Asmae El Moudir and Kazuhiro Soda, said they were unanimous in their decision, highlighting Drygas’ “bold and inventive use of archive.”

“The film shows us routes to the positive and negative consequences of modern industrial innovation. It harnesses the magic of cinema and as an audience, we are haunted by our present historical time, even while we bear witness to the past,” the jury added of the winning film, which will take home a €15,000 cash prize.

“Chronicles of the Absurd”

The International Competition jury awarded the Best Directing...

U.S. director, screenwriter and producer Todd Haynes will be the president of the international jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival early next year.

“Todd Haynes is a dazzlingly gifted writer and director with an impressive range; his body of work is at once stylistically versatile but also unmistakably his,” said Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle on Thursday. “Ever since his debut feature Poison won the Teddy Award in 1991, the Berlinale has followed and loved his filmmaking.”

Over nearly 40 years, Haynes has been “one of the most bold and distinctive filmmaking voices in U.S.-American cinema, beloved for his great sensitivity in exploring the interior worlds of outsiders and women, and his fascinating investigations into gender and identity,” Berlinale organizers said. “His skill at creating complex characters has attracted many of the world’s finest actors. Stars such as Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway,...

A documentary about the shaping of trans identity in the shadow of patriarchal society from a first-time filmmaker who was once mentored by philosopher Jacques Derrida sounds, on paper, like homework. But trans writer-turned-director Paul B. Preciado’s “Orlando, My Political Biography” is hardly so, instead revealing itself as a playful and joyous ode to how transness calls out the social order’s inherent fictions, binaries, and normativities — and it’s also a loving paean to the prose of Virginia Woolf.

The great British writer’s “Orlando: A Biography,” about a noble who changes genders in their sleep across a 300-year lifespan, already inspired a great Sally Potter film, 1992’s “Orlando” starring Tilda Swinton. But Preciado’s film essay, populated by a colorful cast of sparky trans characters worthy of a Pedro Almodóvar fresco, is a fitting heir to “Orlando’s” literary and cinematic bona fides, both an embrace for...

A century from publication, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography is still in vogue. Just before the pandemic, Tilda Swinton––who played Orlando in Sally Potter’s landmark film 30 years ago––curated a photography exhibition for Aperture inspired by the novel. Early last year, Megan Fernandes had Woolf’s text in mind when she wrote her eulogy for Roe vs Wade. More recently, theater director Neil Bartlett took a new adaptation to the West End, casting non-binary performer Emma Corrin in the title role. For a while, Potter’s adaptation seemed like the last word on Orlando, but Woolf’s story only grows more relevant (and more malleable) as each generation claims it for themselves.

In her review of Bartlett’s play, the theater critic Helen Shaw wrote that the novel “slots into the current gender discourse with a nearly audible click.” Enter Paul B. Preciado, the celebrated French author...

The radical post-apocalyptic sci-fi lesbian fantasy you need this season, A. Hans Scheirl, and Dietmar Schipek’s Austrian odyssey Flaming Ears has been newly restored in 4K and is arriving next month. Released in 1991 and set in 2700, Kino Lorber will release the “cyberdyke” avant-garde science fiction film at Metrograph beginning November `18 and we’re delighted to premiere the exclusive new trailer.

Set in the burnt-out, all-lesbian city of Asche, the overlapping tales of three women unfold: comic book artist Spy (Susana Helmayr); pyromaniac pervert performance artist Volly (co-director Pürrer); and utterly amoral, reptile revering alien Nun (co-director Scheirl). With comparisons to Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, B. Ruby Rich put it best: “Imagine the film that J.G. Ballard might have made if he’d been born an Austrian dyke, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The 4K restoration was performed in 2020 by Kinothek Asta Nielsen e.

In 1992, B. Ruby Rich wrote an essay about a burgeoning movement in independent film, which she dubbed “New Queer Cinema.” It’s up for debate whether it was, in fact, new: although queer theory was still in its infancy at the time, movies by and for queer people had been made for decades. Many of the exciting new voices of the movement took heavy inspiration from their predecessors. But for the first time, queer cinema was on the verge of mainstream acceptance. There was plenty of controversy and hate-mongering from the usual suspects, but independent film was about to blow up in a big way, and some of the movement’s luminaries would blow up alongside it.

Coined by the film historian and critic B. Ruby Rich in 1992 to give voice to the explosion in queer film she was witnessing on the burgeoning film festival circuit, the New Queer Cinema’s influence on independent film cannot be overstated. The ‘80s saw films like Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” explode the idea of what film could be, in turn inspiring a new generation of radical queer filmmakers to pick up the camera and crack the whole thing wide open.

As Hollywood churned out blockbusters like “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park,” anyone paying attention could see that the real fun was being had way below budget. Sundance was still a new little gathering in Park City, where someone fresh out of film school could show a film and meet likeminded artists. Throughout the decade, Sundance gradually established itself as the...

Selection of Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko to be unveiled on September 2 opening day.

Telluride Film Festival will run from September 2-5 this year and has invited dissident Russian filmmakers Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko to be its guest directors.

Balagov directed Cannes 2017 Un Certain Regard Fipresci winner Closeness and followed that up with Beanpole, which premiered in the same section in 2019 and also won Fipresci, as well as the best director prize and made the shortlist as Russia’s Oscar submission. His next project, TV series The Last Of Us, is set to premiere on HBO in 2023.

Kovalenko’s...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Monica Vitti in Red Desert (1964). (Courtesy of Janus Films)One of the most captivating presences in Italian cinema, actress Monica Vitti has died at age 90. She started as a stage and television actor before becoming known for her roles in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), La notte (1960), L'eclisse (1962) and Red Desert (1964). After the end of her professional and romantic relationship with Antonioni (the two would return for The Mystery of Oberwald in 1980), Vitti turned to lighter fare by international directors, including a small part in Luis Buñuel's surrealist comedy The Phantom of Liberty (1974). In the official announcement of Vitti's death, Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini wrote, “Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema.”The groundbreaking artist James Bidgood, whose artistic output spanned from photography and music to films like Pink Narcissus (1971), has also died.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Casting board Polaroids from Heat (1995). (Courtesy of Michael Mann)Michael Mann's debut novel is titled Heat 2, which is both a prequel and sequel to his 1995 classic crime thriller. Co-written with novelist Meg Gardiner, Heat 2 will be published on August 9 through the HarperCollins-based Michael Mann Books imprint. Jonas Mekas 100! is a program dedicated to honoring the influential critic, writer, and filmmaker Jonas Mekas. The events of the program are currently underway and are taking place worldwide, from Sweden to Taiwan, with a focus on "[expanding] global recognition of his work." Bong Joon-ho is moving forward with his next English-language film, an adaptation of Edward Ashton's upcoming science fiction novel Mickey7, with Robert Pattinson set to star. The book is about a "disposable employee" on a space colony base who refuses to be replaced by a clone.

Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins will serve as the guest director of this year’s Telluride Film Festival, the festival announced on Thursday.

Jenkins will select a series of films to present at the 48th Telluride Film Festival, which will take place Sept. 2-6, 2021.

“Each year as we think about who a good Guest Director would be, Tom and I weigh different factors,” executive director Julie Huntsinger said in a statement. “Many are based in the intellectual realm: film knowledge, appreciation and, of course, serious talent. But our recipe always includes something more ephemeral – something that has to do with the quality of the human heart. Rare is the person who exceeds on each of these criteria. Barry Jenkins checks every box and more. We feel lucky and a little incredulous that our long-time friend and very talented colleague has agreed to join us as Guest Director this year. The...

Following its initial run last May and June, Sentient.Art Film. has revived the series "My Sight is Lined With Visions: 1990s Asian American Film & Video" as a year-long program, helmed by Sentient.Art.Film Artistic Director Keisha Knight and co-curator Abby Sun. The history of Asian American film and video is shaped by what B. Ruby Rich and Brian Hu describe (in Film Quarterly's recent dossier on fifty years of Asian American cinema) as its "public-ness." Through the initiatives of community-based media arts organizations like the Center for Asian American Media and Visual Communications, burgeoning Asian American filmmakers strove to generate cultural consciousness, just as the term "Asian American" entered the national vocabulary. In the "public" tradition of Asian American cinema, and against the limitations imposed by the pandemic, this series challenges barriers of access by making these hard-to-find titles available online. You can rent the entire selection until...

Source: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Rebecca Hall, Questlove, Emilia Jones Festival director Tabitha Jackson to kick off five-day event in Opening Night Welcome.

Actors and first-time directors Rebecca Hall and Robin Wright, Coda stars Marlee Matlin and Emilia Jones, and musician and filmmaker Questlove are among a Sundance 2021 programme of special events, conversations and activations.

Hall and Wright will talk on January 31 in one of several virtual Cinema Café conversations about their Sundance world premieres and feature directorial debuts Passing and Land.

The roster includes Judas And The Black Messiah director Shaka King and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on January...

The Dok Industry prize-winners were announced last week.

Congolese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi’s Downstream To Kinshasa won this year’s Golden Dove in Dok Leipzig’s (Oct 26-Nov 1) international competition for long documentary and animated film.

The co-production between the Democratic Republic of Congo, France and Belgium centres on a group of disabled civilians setting off on a long journey to Kinshasa to demand compensation for the injuries suffered during the so-called Six Day War between Ugandan and Rwandan troops in 2000.

The film, selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and given a special mention by the Amplify Voices...

Features: Harvey Milk, Anne Kronenberg, Tory Hartmann | Written by Judith Coburn, Carter Wilson | Directed by Rob Epstein

Back in 1984, director Rob Epstein along with narration writers Judith Coburn and Carter Wilson, worked together to bring us the acclaimed documentary film, The Times of Harvey Milk. A powerful 90 minute look at the successes and eventual tragic assassination of the trailblazing first elected gay city supervisor of San Francisco. Now, some 36 years later, Criterion, here in the UK, have brought us a spectacular release of the film, along with an array of special features.

Harvey Milk was an outspoken man, a human rights activist and the first openly gay politician in U.S history to be elected to public office. His inspiration to millions of people around the world is well-documented and it continues to this very day, some 42 years after he was killed. This Oscar winning documentary was a vital one,...

More often than not, queer children are born to straight parents and raised in a straight world. Traditional coming-out stories, where a queer character must reveal their sexuality to their families, have long held fascination for mainstream audiences. Infinitely more fascinating is the self-actualization journey, the universal queer experience of coming out to oneself, which is where queerness really distinguishes itself from straightness. Queer people must discover identity on our own, often without community, reflections of ourselves, or any record of our history. That’s why the queer canon — of radical queer cinema, literature, and art — is so vital, and it’s something you certainly won’t find in the latest Ryan Murphy confection.

Before it became fashionable for every TV show to have an LGBTQ+ character, queer art was often made with very little money or support. This led to the scrappy, DIY aesthetic of the New Queer Cinema,...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures scored a win with Chicago film scholar and TCM “Silent Sunday Nights” host Jacqueline Stewart, who has been hired as its chief artistic and programming officer. Many top film programmers and executives sought this plum curatorial job, which will see Stewart lead strategy, planning, and programming for all Academy Museum exhibitions, screenings, symposia, publications, workshops, and K-12 programs.

She reports to Academy Museum director and president Bill Kramer. “We are bringing together the already fantastic work of our curatorial, programming, education, and publications teams that are creating powerful and diverse content and initiatives for the Academy Museum,” Kramer wrote in an email. “Jacqueline’s background as an educator, programmer, archivist, author, and scholar, along with her deep commitment to building strong community relations and showcasing diverse, inclusive, and accessible stories made her a perfect candidate for the position.”

Stewart already serves on the curatorial...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures scored a win with Chicago film scholar and TCM “Silent Sunday Nights” host Jacqueline Stewart, who has been hired as its chief artistic and programming officer. Many top film programmers and executives sought this plum curatorial job, which will see Stewart lead strategy, planning, and programming for all Academy Museum exhibitions, screenings, symposia, publications, workshops, and K-12 programs.

She reports to Academy Museum director and president Bill Kramer. “We are bringing together the already fantastic work of our curatorial, programming, education, and publications teams that are creating powerful and diverse content and initiatives for the Academy Museum,” Kramer wrote in an email. “Jacqueline’s background as an educator, programmer, archivist, author, and scholar, along with her deep commitment to building strong community relations and showcasing diverse, inclusive, and accessible stories made her a perfect candidate for the position.”

Stewart already serves on the curatorial...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Carl Reiner, Annie Reiner, and Mel Brooks, photographed together at Brooks's 94th birthday celebration.We're saddened by news that actor, comedian, screenwriter and director Carl Reiner has died. Mel Brooks remembers Reiner, his best friend, in a post reflecting upon their famous collaborations together. Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson has unveiled plans for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place "live in Utah and in at least 20 independent and community cinemas across the U.S. and beyond." Elsewhere, the Locarno International Film Festival announced its 20 selections for the Films After Tomorrow program, which aims to offer support to productions that were put on hold by the health crisis. These films include films by Lucrecia Martel, Wang Bing, Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Helena Wittmann, and Lisandro Alonso. Recommended VIEWINGArthur Jafa directed...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGFrom the Criterion Collection, an excerpted clip from B. Ruby Rich's overview of pioneering female (and openly gay) filmmaker Dorothy Arzner's career and feminist reshaping of the woman's-picture. A trailer for Les Blank's recently restored Chulas Fronteras, which documents the lives of the Norteño musicians from the Texas-Mexican border and the social protests of their songs. Recommended READINGOn the set of Eyes Wide Shut.Indiewire has gathered an invaluable set of reflections on the state and the future of moviegoing from the perspective of exhibitors. Bilge Ebiri delves into the oral history of the notorious orgy scene from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, from its lengthy planning period to a more improvised shoot.Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Paul Schrader, and more, have published a letter in response to...

If you were thinking of attending this year’s annual Labor Day weekend cinephile celebration high in the Rocky Mountains, it’s too late. Coveted passes to the 46th Telluride Film Festival sold out months ago, and the Los Angeles charter flights to Montrose, Colorado are booked.

Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.

Some...

If you were thinking of attending this year’s annual Labor Day weekend cinephile celebration high in the Rocky Mountains, it’s too late. Coveted passes to the 46th Telluride Film Festival sold out months ago, and the Los Angeles charter flights to Montrose, Colorado are booked.

Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.

Some...

Toronto — Veteran Toronto director Laurie Lynd taps into the myth-busting 2017 book “Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic” for a documentary feature that reframes the legacy of Quebec flight attendant Gaetan Dugas, a promiscuous gay man who was incorrectly identified as patient zero by investigators from the U.S. Center for Disease Control in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

“Killing Patient Zero,” which had its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto, explores how the idea of a patient zero was amplified – and how Dugas was vilified – via the publisher’s strategy for promoting the groundbreaking book “And The Band Played On,” by serializing and sensationalizing its patient-zero chapter.

In Lynd’s film, author Randy Shilts is a key supporting character whose crusade to effect change through his writing had complex repercussions.

In a traditional but lively style, Lynd and editor Trevor Ambrose take viewers from...

What critic B. Ruby Rich dubbed the “New Queer Cinema” encountered little but praise (plus some attention-getting damnation from political conservatives) with such early ’90s titles as “Swoon,” “My Own Private Idaho,” “The Living End,” “Paris Is Burning,” and so forth. But by mid-decade the vogue had run long enough that even gay audiences felt less inclined to embrace every creative effort, giving a relatively cold shoulder to Steve McLean’s “Postcards From America” (1994) and Todd Verow’s “Frisk.” Both were adapted from edgy gay lit figures — the former from autobiographical writings by David Wojnarowicz (who’d died of AIDS), the latter from a typically violent, queasy novel by Dennis Cooper.

These films look better now than most critics or viewers allowed then. The revulsion “Frisk” was greeted with (at a time when gay films were expected to provide some measure of reassuring uplift) only emboldened Verow as a since-highly-prolific director of microbudget features,...

In an astonishing move to swell the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences membership ranks, a record 928 artists and executives from 59 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call; this year, they did not invite Kobe Bryant although he won an Oscar for animated short “Dear Basketball.”

Clearly, people of color (38 percent) and women (49 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members also come from overseas.

In 2017, the Academy invited 744 new members.

Seventeen Oscar winners are among the new invited members (Melissa Etheridge) and 92 Oscar nominees. Nine of the 17 branches invited more women than men. The percentage of women in the Academy has risen from...

The Telluride Film Festival has selected novelist Jonathan Lethem as its guest director for its 45th annual fest.

The festival, running over Labor Day weekend on Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, announced the selection on Friday. Lethem will pick a series of films to screen at the festival and plans to participate in discussions at the screenings.

Lethem has written 10 novels, five short story collections, a novella, two books of essays, a comic series, and articles in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and McSweeney’s. He’s best known for his fifth novel, “Motherless Brooklyn,” the 1999 book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award, Macallan Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction, and Salon Book Award.

The film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn” — directed by Edward Norton, and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, and Leslie Mann — is currently in production and slated for release in 2019. Lethem’s more recent novels include New York Times...

John Waters has penned all his books in Provincetown, Mass., and most of his movies, too. The iconic indie filmmaker of such campy classics as “Female Trouble” and “Hairspray” was born and raised in Baltimore, but it’s the “gay fishing village” on the tip of Cape Cod where he’s been summering for the past 53 years, writing in the mornings and bicycling about town.

Waters has also been a steady and celebrated fixture at the Provincetown Intl. Film Festival, kicking off its 20th edition June 13, enticing filmmakers to attend the event.

“I usually write one of the letters to every director that’s come to the fest talking them into coming, and I think every one of them has had a great time,” says Waters, who will present “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project” writer-director Sean Baker with the fest’s Filmmaker on the Edge award.

“Baker would make the best spy,...

By 1985 Hollywood had still only dabbled in movies about the ‘shame that cannot speak its name,’ and in every case the verdict for the transgressors was regret and misery, if not death. Donna Deitch’s brilliant drama achieves exactly what she wanted, to do make a movie about a lesbian relationship that doesn’t end in a tragedy.

Desert Hearts

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 902

1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Gwen Welles, Dean Butler, James Staley, Katie La Bourdette, Alex McArthur, Tyler Tyhurst, Denise Crosby, Antony Ponzini, Brenda Beck, Jeffrey Tambor.

Cinematography: Robert Elswit

Film Editor: Robert Estrin

Production Design: Jeannine Oppewall

Written by Natalie Cooper from the novel by Jane Rule

Produced and Directed by Donna Deitch

Desert Hearts is a fine movie that’s also one of the first features ever about a lesbian romance,...

The fall movie season continues to expand its offerings, and critics are diversifying their opinions. In early September, IndieWire’s Telluride Film Festival Critics Survey found consensus forming around Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fantasy “The Shape of Water” and Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age story “Lady Bird” as the best films of the festival. Now, another crowdpleaser is stepping into the spotlight.

“Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” topped IndieWire’s annual Tiff Critics Survey as the best film of the Toronto International Film Festival, just one day after Martin Mcdonough’s black comedy won Tiff’s coveted People’s Choice Award, which is often used as a barometer for early awards season traction. The Fox Searchlight-produced film premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival prior to its Tiff screening, where it generated accolades for Frances McDormand’s foul-mouthed turn as a woman seeking justice for her daughter’s murder.

When Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the visionary sibling directors of “The Matrix” and “Sense8, came out as transgender, it was a boon for trans filmmakers everywhere. Suddenly, the Wachowskis’ entire canon of influential science fiction, fantasy (and even “Bound,” their one explicitly queer film) could be seen through a whole different lens. The news turned “The Matrix” into a metaphor for eschewing the gender binary, “Bound” could comfortably be claimed as a lesbian film made by a lesbian, and they were free to make “Sense8” as unabashedly inclusive as they wanted.

Read More: How Silas Howard Became the Best Trans Director Working Today

So: How many trans directors can you name besides the Wachowskis?

While their influence cannot be overstated, there is a robust crew of transgender filmmakers coming up in their wake. As trans stories become de rigeur, it’s increasingly important that these stories are told by trans people.

This is the first installment of Ask IndieWire, in which our team of writers and editors address reader questions related to filmmaking, movies and television. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, write us at ask@indiewire.com.

Within a matter of hours of advertising the ask@indiewire.com email, we received several variations of the same question.

“I’m graduating soon with a degree in film and television studies and am mostly interested in film and television journalism/criticism,” wrote Morgan Picton-James. “What advice would you have for following that career path?”

Farida Ezzat, a fourth-year medical student, had a similar question. “I’m interested in a career in film criticism,” she wrote. “What do you recommend I study after graduating from med school: filmmaking or journalism?” Jessie Rodriguez just cut to the chase: “How does one become a David Ehrlich?”

Every one of these questions — yes, even the last one — reflects a legitimate challenge facing many young writers keen on covering movies. Although there are numerous opportunities on this career path, the media landscape is in constant flux. And while it would be unrealistic to assume that every talented young cinephile could land a gig as the next Roger Ebert (or the next David Ehrlich), there are several practical ways in which a serious, talented journalist can take steps toward doing just that.

I’ve spent the last few years working with aspiring critics and reporters at workshops around the world, and teaching them at Nyu. Many of them have found rewarding paths into the film community, either by landing full-time jobs in media or developing those skills on the side. Here are some of the key guidelines to keep in mind if you’re keen on breaking into the field.

Find deadlines. Stick to them.

Writers who regularly blow deadlines have a rough time finding work and keeping it. Even the really talented ones. Discipline is essential to a developing critic or reporter, and discipline also creates productivity — and productivity goes toward those 10,000 hours everyone likes to talk about. (Whether or not you buy Malcolm Gladwell’s theory, the ethos of “practice makes perfect” still holds water.)

This is especially valuable for budding critics who need to produce distinctive work. Imitating other critics is deadly; so is falling back on clichés. That means developing voice, and the fastest way to do that is get a deadline, hit it, and then do it again.

Finding deadlines depends on your starting point. Students can write for the college newspaper, or intern at an admired publication — or even one they don’t like. The point is to get in the vicinity of writers and editors, with the potential opportunity for bylines. Every story creates a clip, and every clip is one more piece of evidence that you can do the job when pitching publications.

First-rate film publications like Reverse Shot and Slant have been wonderful resources for budding writers; the editors provide smart, insightful, and honest feedback (essential for developing a thick skin). It also makes your byline familiar to publicists and other members of the film community.

Get to know the scene.

Big cities like Los Angeles or New York have a complex network of filmmakers, programmers, publicists, distributors, agents, and journalists. The more effort you make to become a part of this ecosystem, the better. Work the film parties, go to the big screening series and festivals, don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to the room, and build a network of contacts. This will provide screening access, potential stories, and productive work.

If you live outside a big city, you have a chance to be a big fish in a smaller pond. Get to know who runs the big art house theater or local film festival. Being an active critic and reporter means they will see you as a key resource, which could lead to more work.

Find your strengths. Then go beyond them.

Young writers are often keen on covering the films and filmmakers that appeal to them and leave everything else on the sidelines. That’s a mistake: You’re more valuable if can cover an Agnes Varda retrospective as well as the new “Transformers” movie.

This logic also applies to the work: Too many aspiring critics saw Roger Ebert or Leonard Maltin on TV and decided that being a movie reviewer is the one and only career. There’s too many other possibilities, and very few publications hiring full-time critics.

Become a good interviewer, with angles that stand out (your story will almost always be one among many). Become a good reporter, paying attention to hard-news coverage of the entertainment industry. Both force you to interact with people outside the ivory tower of criticism, give you insight into how movies work, and inevitably deepen your well of contacts.

And, since we’re in 2017: Write about television. Not only does every outlet want to cover TV, but also the overlap between film and TV has never been more pronounced.

Finally, pay close attention to the way publications package information. Something that might seem crass or clickbaity — think clever headlines and lists (like this one) — is how outlets reach the widest readership possible. Pitch stories in these terms, and you advance the odds of finding work.

Find a strong angle for everything you write.

The only thing worse than a poorly written story is a boring one. Before you conjure clever one-liners, ask yourself what you really want to say. Does this loud blockbuster illustrate Hollywood’s worst tendencies? Why does this filmmaker do such a bad job of representing women? Did you just watch the best horror movie of the year? Construct real arguments that will pull your readers into your work.

A good editor will tell you if you need to pull back on the prose. Some of my favorite critics, including Manohla Dargis, Wesley Morris, B. Ruby Rich, and Amy Taubin, all have distinctive perspectives that come through both in the specificity of their voices and their specific sensibilities; agreeing with them is irrelevant. Tastes should be transparent: Writers like Glenn Kenny, Nick Pinkerton, and IndieWire’s own David Ehrlich are strong, entertaining writers no matter what they tackle (or where). Nothing can boost your profile faster.

What are your priorities?

Is your agenda to find a stable paycheck, with a good health insurance plan and reasonable hours? Don’t jump headfirst into the freelance lifestyle. Even if you’re overwhelmed with assignments, it can be tricky to maintain that momentum. But don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your dream; there are ways to produce work on the side. Which leads me to a final point…

Look beyond journalism and criticism.

If movies are your passion, there are many different ways put it to work. Careers in distribution, publicity, and programming all let you watch a lot of movies, engage with filmmakers, travel to festivals, or work at studios. (And: Get paid more.)

I’m a big fan of Andrea Picard’s Film/Art column in Cinema Scope; she’s one of the best writers covering experimental film. She’s also a programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival’s avant-garde Wavelengths section, which gives her an incredible degree of influence beyond the stories she writes.

Before you get carried away about being the next David Ehrlich, think about how that ambition might be expressed with other opportunities. A world of possibilities await.

Related storiesJared Kushner's New York Observer Lays Off Film Critic Rex ReedRichard Schickel, Rip: How the Legendary Critic Defined a GenerationCléo Journal Addresses 'Woeful Lack of Feminist Perspectives' in Film Criticism...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveriesNEWSSexy DurgaThe Hivos Tiger Awards of the International Film Festival Rotterdam have been announced, with Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Sexy Durga taking home the Tiger, Niles Atallah's Rey winning the Special Jury Award, and Caroline Leone's Pela janela being picked by Fipresci.New York's Whitney Museum has revealed its full film program for the 2017 Biennial, with a focus on such filmmakers as Mary Helena Clark, James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Kevin Jerome Everson, Eric Baudelaire and Robert Beavers.Recommended VIEWINGThe eagerly awaited trailer for Sofia Coppola's new film, a remake of Don Siegel's bizarre and wonderful The Beguiled, with Colin Farrell in Clint Eastwood's role.The glorious full trailer for James Gray's Amazonia exploration melodrama, The Lost City of Z."The screen is a neutral element in the film-going experience. Or is it? It projects dreams...

Film historian B. Ruby Rich credits the 1992 Sundance Film Festival as the cradle of New Queer Cinema, and a quick survey of this year’s festival lineup confirms that Lgbt films stand an excellent chance of attracting audiences. Lesbian filmmaker Dee Rees’ “Mudbound” is one of the most talked about films of the year, trans director Yance Ford’s deeply personal “Strong Island” has been years in the making, and we may have the British “Brokeback Mountain” (but better) with Francis Lee’s “God’s Own Country.”

Perusing the slate of queer films, filmmakers, and performers at Sundance this year, 2017 is set to be the best year queer cinema has seen in a long time. Here’s 10 reasons why:

Read More: 10 Surprises and Hidden Gems from the 2017 Sundance Lineup

Dee Rees is About to Become the Most Successful Black Lesbian Director in Hollywood

Queer audiences have known Dee Rees since...

Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras -- plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about la Crawford's color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? Johnny Guitar (Olive Signature widescreen edition) Blu-ray Olive Films 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 but heavily discounted Starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Richard Van Enger Original Music Victor Young Written by Philip Yordan from the novel by Roy Chanslor Produced by Herbert J. Yates Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...

Buoyed by the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, things looked really good for Lgbtq people at the start of 2016. Then came the Orlando massacre, and with it the reminder that queer people were not safe, not even within the comforts provided by its culture.

That was only six weeks ago, but it seems longer. Orlando has fallen out of the news cycle — for the media, too many fresher tragedies take precedence. There’s the police murders of black men, an assassin’s murders of police and the public in Dallas, the Nice attacks, and even another Florida nightclub shooting, this one in Fort Myers. And for the public, the crises converge. There were signs remembering Orlando at Black Lives Matter rallies, and the Lgbtq community responded to Orlando with anti-gun rallies and messages of support for Muslims.

This puts Lgbtq culture in a familiar position: If the threats to...

Ever since the gay television swell of the early to mid-aughts, viewers have been looking to the fill void left by “The L Word,” “Will & Grace” and “Queer as Folk.” Sadly, “Looking” leaves them still looking. Andrew Haigh’s HBO series (which only lasted two seasons) deliberately eschewed the fabulousness of those beloved shows, instead aiming for the unstructured writing and hipster ennui of “Girls.” In his eagerness to distinguish the series from its natural predecessors, Haigh strayed too far from his own voice, so clearly defined in his acclaimed feature films “Weekend” and “45 Years.”

HBO may have been betting that Haigh could conjure some of the magic of those films for his feature-length take on “Looking.” Unfortunately, the film only plays like an epilogue to the series, resurrecting its hunky characters just so viewers can ogle them a bit longer. It’s the lesbian couple trying to make it work one last time,...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column.

– Exclusive: The 6th Annual Lower East Side Film Festival and their 2016 panel of judges, including Ethan Hawke, Cindy Tolan, Steve Farneth and Raul Castillo have announced their winners. Check them out below.

Best Feature Film – “Americana” – By Zachary Shedd

Best Live Action Short Film – “Killer” – By Matt Kazman

Best Animated Short Film – “The Mega Plush: Episode I” – By Matt Burniston

Best Music Video – The Knocks’ “Collect My Love” – By Austin Peters, Music by The Knocks, featuring Alex Newell

Best Documentary Short Film – “Erosion” – By Brandon Bloch, Tim Sessler and Brandon Bray

The Advocacy Award Presented by Here TV – “Video” – By Randy Yang

The Lesff Neighborhood Award – “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream” – By Michael Levine

Best of Fest, The Lesff Prix D’Or – “Art of the Prank” – By Andrea Marini

Audience Award...

Hannah Bonner Mar 8, 2019

Gender equality continues to be an ongoing issue in Hollywood. We examine why that is and who are 26 voices you should look for.

While Green Book winning Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars was a sour surprise for many viewers, and Olivia Colman’s Best Actress win pure sweetness, the Oscars was glaringly predictable in one key area before the red carpet even unfurled. The absence of women directors (again!) in the Best Director and Best Picture category points to the sustained systematic exclusion of females from two of the most acclaimed, and coveted, prizes in Hollywood.

The Hollywood industry hasn’t cottoned much to female directors. How else do we explain that women account for 4.6 percent of directors of major studio films as of 2015? How else do we explain that it wasn’t until 2010 that a woman won an Oscar for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker...

Since we're not in Sundance this year, a look back at Sundance classics. Here's David on Poison...

Glenn kicked off our Sundance retrospective with a look at Desert Hearts, a film with more than a passing resemblance to Todd Haynes' Carol; a few years down the line, and we come to Haynes’ own appearance in the Utah festival, with his feature debut Poison. Winner of the 1991 festival’s Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic, Poison is considered a vital film in the ‘New Queer Cinema’ movement of the early 1990s, as coined by B. Ruby Rich the following year. Rich’s theory involved not just the presence of Lgbt characters and themes, but the queering of filmmaking form itself. Haynes had already demonstrated his inventive, radical eye in the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, and Poison, with its triptych of homonymic narratives, consolidated the director’s manipulation...

Returning to the big screen after nearly a decade, queer maestro Todd Haynes presents his film Carol, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, a rapturous love story between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. In honor of the release, the Film Society at Lincoln Center has assembled a retrospective called “Todd Haynes: The Other Side of Dreams,” and, for our own appreciation, we’re taking a look back at his films.

Through glances, touches, performances, cleaning, singing, organizing, cooking, and sex, Todd Haynes has established himself as one of the most inventive filmmakers, and perhaps the most daringly unapologetic when it comes to broaching topics of identity, femininity, queerness, love, and desire. But his work is also imbued with passion and sensitivity, and he’s as invested in characters’ interior lives as he is playing intellectual games with the audience. Join us as we take a walk through his filmography.

Although this article doesn’t explicitly contain any significant spoilers, it is always advisable to watch a film before reading about it too deeply.

In his own words, the intended audience for Russ Meyer’s films was “some guy…in the theatre with semen seeping out of his dick.” His work in the sexploitation subgenre is credited with bringing nudity and sleaze into the American cinematic mainstream and his gravestone declares him ‘King of the Nudies.’ And yet his magnum opus has been reclaimed as a work of female empowerment, a subversive text that has inspired music videos by the Spice Girls and Janet Jackson, lent its name to a New York women’s bar and even been referenced in Xena and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Despite dismissing it after a first viewing in the mid-1970s as “retrograde male-objectification of women’s bodies and desires further embellished by a...

Read More: Provincetown Film Festival Releases Lineup For 17th Edition  The Provincetown International Film Festival (Piff) announced that it will honor comedian and writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait, as well as actress Jennnifer Coolidge, at this year's edition of the festival. Goldthwait, whose documentary "Call Me Lucky" screened in competition at Sundance in January, will be named "Filmmaker on the Edge" in a conversation with Piff resident artist John Waters. Coolidge, best known for her roles in "Best in Show" and the "American Pie" and "Legally Blonde" franchises, will be awarded the Faith Hubley Career Achievement Award from film critic B. Ruby Rich. In addition to announcing the 2015 honorees, Piff released the full shorts program, as well as the titles of feature films that have been added since the festival's main program announcement. Notable additions include Noah Baumbach's "Mistress America;" a...

I am happy to see more people vocalize demand for Latina representation onscreen and the resurging interest in solving this messed up disparity issue (Thank you Gina Rodriguez Golden Globes acceptance speech ). However, the representation issue I find ten times more urgent to address is the anguishing miniscule percentage of Latina Content Creators in film and television.

I give you 5 bomb Latina Directors who are are at the helm of brand new feature films coming out this year, women who are striking through the hostile mass media industry to escape the rule of homogeneity (white male perspective). Now that is something to celebrate. It’s not surprising that three of these are documentaries. The percentage of women directed films in documentaries is higher than in fiction. Now I can’t say with total certainty these 2 Latina directed U.S. fiction feature length films are the only ones out there this year…actually yes I can…..until someone reaches out to correct me ….and I really do hope to be corrected because only two???????

"Los 33"

Director : Patricia Riggen

Writers : Mikko Alanne, Michael John Bell, Craig Borten, Jose Rivera

Producers : Robert Katz, Edward McGurn, Mike Medavoy

Cinematographer : Checco Varese

Music : James Horner

U.S. Distributor : Tba

Cast : Rodrigo Santoro, Antonio Banderas, Cote de Pablo, James Brolin, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kate del Castillo, Tenoch Huerta

Social Media: @The33Pelicula

Logline: Based on the incredible real-life story of the 33 survivors of a copper-gold mine in Chile that collapsed and trapping them 700 meters underground for 69 days until their rescue.

Add Riggen to the exclusive ranks of women who fought for and have proved they got the chops to direct big action, Hollywood type genre movies like Katheryn Bigelow, Mimi Leder. The trailer for Los 33 that dropped last week reveals an epic dramatization of the intensely emotional struggle to survive the Chilean mine disaster. The English language film carries a sweeping score by none other than James Horner (and naturally you can hear Violetta Parra’s classic song, Gracias Por La Vida). Add to that a big hero performance by Antonio Banderas who leads an ensemble cast of well known international actors (including hottie Mexican star of Güeros, Tenoch Huerta!!). Riggen, who was born in Guadalajara but moved to the states after graduating Columbia’s film school in NY, made a splash with her 2007 film, Under the Same Moon starring a back-then-virtually-unknown-in-the-u.S. Eugenio Derbez, and Kate del Castillo. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival then was picked up by Pantelion, the studio she later worked with on the Eva Mendes starrer Girl in Progress.

Domestic distribution and release stateside is yet to be confirmed. Meanwhile Twentieth Century Fox will be releasing the film in Chile in August, marking the fifth anniversary of the incident, before rolling out the film throughout Latin America including Mexico. For an in-depth account of Los 33, check out current best-seller, “Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free” by Hector Tobar.

"Endgame"

Director: Carmen Marron

Writers : Hector Salinas, Carmen Marron

Producers : Sandra Avila, Carmen Marron

Executive Producers : Hector Salinas, Betty Sullivan

Associate Producer : Bonnie Emerson

Cinematographer: Francisco Bulgarelli

Music: Brian Standefer

Cinematographer: Francisco Bulgarelli

U.S. Distributor : Tba

Cast : Rico Rodriguez, Efren Ramirez, Justina Machado, Jon Gries

Social Media: @GoForIt_Carmen

Facebook

Logline: Shot in Brownsville and inspired by true events, Endgame is a coming-of-age story about a young boy who joins the school chess team, and with the help of his coach, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, team spirit and the importance of family.

Another talented genre director (and fellow Chicana from Chicago, Heyyy) whose tenacity and talent make her primed to be our Latina Ava Duvernay success story (of course that depends on whether the public (and gatekeepers) support her to make the change to the system to demand her spot in the national mainstream). I wrote about Carmen’s tireless spirit before , mentioning her first film which she shot, wrote, directed and produced in Chicago called Go For It (which incidentally was Gina Rodriguez’s first feature role). Her latest film is Endgame starring the precocious Manny from Modern Family, Rico Rodriguez, and Efren Ramirez from cult classic Napoleon Dynamite, Endgame is one of those irresistible competition, underdog, against-all-odds stories. Ramirez portrays the galvanizing Brownsville public elementary school teacher and chess afficionado, J.J. Guajardo, who in 1989, upon seeing his 6th grade class take an interest in his chess board, began to teach them on the regular. The class excelled and entered regional competitions, going on to enter and win state championships against schools with far more resources. Echoing the positives of disrupting a broke educational status quo with simply offering access to advanced mental cognition building tools, the film echoes another real life story and seminal Chicano film, Stand & Deliver. Big difference; that movie was not directed by a Latino/a.

The film is world premiering at the Dallas International Film Festival April 12 &13. Distribution is yet to be confirmed for theatrical/VOD but stay tuned via the Facebook page.

"No Mas Bebes"

Director: Renee Tajima-Peña

Producers : Virginia Espino

Associate Producer : Kate Trumbull-Valle

Executive Producers : Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfland, Sally Jo Fiefer and Sandra Pedlow

U.S. Distributor : Itvs/Latino Public Broadcasting

Cinematographer: Claudio Rocha

Music: Bronwen Jones, additional music by Quetzal

Cast : Antonia Hernandez, Gloria Molina, Dolores Madrigal, Jovita Rivera, Consuelo Hermosillo

Social Media: Facebook

Logline : An investigation of the sterilization of Mexican-American women at Los Angeles County-usc Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s

Sadly, there is an appalling history in the United States of laws and policies authorizing sterilizations of poor women without their knowledge or consent for the “benefit of society”; Buck v. Bell (low-income white women in Virginia), Relf v. Weinberger (young African-American women in Alabama), and female inmates in California. This film focuses on the case of Latinas of Mexican origin in California in Madrigal v. Quilligan . Shedding light on this horrific human rights violation, the film includes interviews with women who suffered this terrible ordeal and locked the memory away, along with former medical staff and the incredible lawyer who filed this suit forty years ago, Antonia Hernandez. A long-time coming, supremely valuable and eye opening contextualization of the Chicano rights movement from the late 60s/70s as well as the current reproductive justice movement.

So kind of cheating here, Renee is not Latina per se, but a sister in the struggle to document the Latino community. Her producer is Latina, Virginia Espino, La born-and-raised historian, plus I really want to rally support for this film because it is one of those Latina stories that really needed to be told and remembered this year which marks the 40th anniversary of the lawsuit (June 19). It is ready to be unveiled and seen by as wide an audience as possible. Stay tuned to hear when the film will have its world premiere before its broadcast in the Fall on Voces, Latino Public Broadcasting’s arts and culture series on PBS.

"Now en Español"

Director: Andrea Meller

Producers : Aaron Woolf, Andrea Meller

Music: Camara Kambon

Cinematographer: Charlie Gruet

U.S. Distributor : PBS/Latino Public Broadcasting

Cast : Marabina Jaimes, Marcela Bordes, Gabriela Lopetegui, Ivette Gonzalez, Natasha Perez

Social Media: @NowenEspanol, website

Logline: Follows the trials and triumphs of the small group of Latina actresses who dub “Desperate Housewives” into Spanish.

Currently hitting the festival circuit in such reputable festivals as Santa Barbara, Chicago Latino Film Festival, CineFestival, ahead of its showing on PBS Voces, "Now en Español" is such an effective and distinct balance of humor, seriousness and insider look by Chilean-American Andrea Meller.

Profiling Marcela Bordes, Ivette Gonzalez, Marabina Jaimes, Gabriela Lopetegui and Natasha Perez, the film is quite plainspoken and sympathetic about the struggle of the actor in Hollywood. Like the comedy fiction film (also directed by a woman!) "In a World," by Lake Bell, the film offers a rare behind the scenes and insight into the voice acting industry. Few actors make make careers out of this, others pick it up for income, but in the end it is a highly distinct skill to dub millions of shows. It’s really fascinating perspective on the representation of Latinas onscreen and off. What I love most about this film on top of it being an important tool for dialogue and change, is that the filmmaker injects a whimsy tone (apropos Wisteria Lane) which makes sparking this conversation and call to action so much more effective. You have no reason to miss this as it premieres on Friday, April 24, 2015, 10:00-11:00 p.m. (check local listings) as part of Voces, Latino Public Broadcasting’s arts and culture series on PBS. To get a taste of the ladies’ charm and humor check out the trailer:

"Ovarian Psycos"

Director: Kate Trumbull-lavalle & Joanna Sokolowski

Producers :Kate Trumbull-lavalle & Joanna Sokolowski

U.S. Distributor : Itvs (broadcast)

Cinematographer: Michael Raines

Music: Jimmy Lavalle

Cast : Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade

Social Media: Facebook

Logline: Follows the story of an all woman of color bicycle brigade, the Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade. Based in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood in Eastside Los Angeles, the Ova’s are a collective of unapologetic, politicized, young Latina women who host monthly bike rides every full moon for women and women-identified riders.

Ever since I interviewed Kate during her film’s Kickstarter , I’ve been madly anticipating this, so I’m pleased to scoop that it will be ready late Fall thanks to Itvs coming in with finishing funds. Protegees of esteemed film ladies like Renee Tajima Peña and B. Ruby Rich, the ladies have spent more than two years riding with the Ovas for this documentary. Says Joanna, “There are lots of bike groups in La, but what’s unique about the Ova’s is each ride has a sociopolitical theme and ends with a group discussion. They dialogue about everything from violence against women to the gentrification of Boyle Heights”.

The Ova’s s leadership is run by the collective who work “To Serve, not to Self Serve. Credited as founder is activist and music artist, Xela de la X who formed this rad collective in 2011 with the mission to cycle for the purpose of healing, reclaim neighborhoods, and create safer streets for women on the Eastside. Currently being edited the film should be ready for the Fall if not early next year.

In case you are wondering Trumbull-lavalle is two generations apart from family in Northern Mexico. Which I only add as proof that last names and color of skin are not indicators for knowing whether someone identifies as Latino/a or not.

Which leads me to reiterate, I really hope these 5 are not the only Latina directors with films coming out this year. Calling out an A.P.B. to Latina directors with a feature length film (fiction especially) in production or post, holler at your girl...

Threading together images of a family idyll, bygone weddings and birthdays captured in the slightly harried, imperfect vernacular of home video, the title sequence of creator Jill Soloway's "Transparent" (Amazon) drifts along like a memory, or a dream. So, too, does the series as a whole: in the warm, hazy hues of its flashbacks to the '80s and '90s, in the hectic familiarity of the staging and in the ambling dialogue, "Transparent" conjures the texture of a backyard barbecue stored away on VHS, keepsake of the not-so-distant past. "New Queer Cinema came out of the conjunction of four things: Reagan, AIDS, the invention of camcorders... and cheap rent," critic B. Ruby Rich said in 2013, reflecting on her landmark 1992 essay for the Village Voice and Sight & Sound. Times have changed, of course, but in alluding to the conditions that made the movement, "Transparent" adapts the New Queer Cinema...

François Truffaut's 1975 collection of criticism, The Films in My Life, is being reissued, and Max Nelson reviews it for Film Comment. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Joanna Hogg on Chantal Akerman, Gilles Deleuze on cinema and philosophy, B. Ruby Rich on Roger Ebert, Darren Hughes and Michael Leary on Claire Denis, Matt Connolly on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny's interview with David Thomson and news of forthcoming projects from Julie Delpy, Damien Chazelle, Terry Gilliam and more. » - David Hudson...

François Truffaut's 1975 collection of criticism, The Films in My Life, is being reissued, and Max Nelson reviews it for Film Comment. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Joanna Hogg on Chantal Akerman, Gilles Deleuze on cinema and philosophy, B. Ruby Rich on Roger Ebert, Darren Hughes and Michael Leary on Claire Denis, Matt Connolly on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny's interview with David Thomson and news of forthcoming projects from Julie Delpy, Damien Chazelle, Terry Gilliam and more. » - David Hudson...

Reese Witherspoon is having a pretty good year: she's a producer on David Fincher's "Gone Girl," she's appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice," and she's won some of the best reviews of her career for "Wild" and "The Good Lie," one or both of which look to be in awards consideration after strong reviews on the festival circuit. But her good year may have even just got better, because a long-gestating passion project looks to have got a new, and very exciting, lease of life. Over four years ago, Witherspoon was attached to star in a biopic of legendary jazz singer Peggy Lee, to be written and directed by "Sleepless In Seattle" helmer Nora Ephron. There's been little news of the project since, and when Ephron passed in 2012, most assumed that the film was dead, but in an on-stage interview last night at Tiff, Witherspoon revealed (via...

In American cinema, fate is often presented as a path leading to success – especially when it comes to love. People meet, fall head-over-heels for one another, experience a setback or two, then live happily ever after. In films outside of Hollywood, love stories are often more realistic, and more in tune with subjective experiences of love. In real life, you have to learn how to love. You have to know who you are before turning to others for deep-seated romantic connection. Love at first sight, though, does exist in real life. Maybe not a long-lasting, grow old together, kind of love; but a life-altering spark, where you absolutely need to experience a particular person. Blue is the Warmest Color deals with this kind of love. Similar to both her and Stranger by the Lake, Blue revolves around a character who is lost. Unlike those films, though, Blue is epic in scope.

The Criterion Collection’s deal with IFC Films has to a unique subset of their catalog. While most Criterion films are either acknowledged classics or foreign/smaller films that the company wants to shed more light on, the IFC ones are generally current. While some of the choices have questionable, we’ve also seen recent greats like “Certified Copy,” “Fish Tank,” next month’s “The Great Beauty,” and this week’s “Blue is the Warmest Color” joining the collection earlier than they otherwise would have. “Blue” is a great film with two of the best performances of 2013. Sadly, the DVD release doesn’t reflect the film’s quality.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Blue is the Warmest Color” is a film that seems tailor-made for interesting special features. It’s based on a graphic novel, which allows for comparisons between its source and final product that could allow insight into its production. It had a tumultuous festival run,...