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"Has Hollywood developed an allergy to originality?" A good question! This was made in 2012, and it first premiered in 2014, but it's still as relevant as ever nine years later. Allergy to Originality is an amusing animated short film about a conversation between two people at a movie theater. It's about originality, or really, it's a defense of the lack of originality insomuch as referencing the truth that pretty much every idea or thought is a derivation of something else / someone else's thoughts. This short was created in 2012, and the marquee features some of the biggest movies that summer: Men in Black 3, Madagascar 3, Prometheus, Dark Shadows, The Avengers, and Snow White (and the Huntsman). Featuring the voices of Ian Picco and Spencer Thun. I don't entirely agree with all the points made in this, but it is interesting to consider. And there's also a good follow-up interview with filmmaker...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains potential spoilers for “Sasquatch.”]

When you see animator Drew Christie’s work side-by-side, you start to see how they come from the same artist. One of the strengths of his contributions to various documentaries — from the sepia-toned inventions of Dr. John Brinkley in Penny Lane’s “Nuts!” to the eerie and ominous Mendocino forests in Hulu’s new series “Sasquatch” — is that each also ends up a key complement to the story being told around it.

His sketch stylings might carry over from project to project, but as with “Sasquatch,” the process begins with ground-up research.

“Each one is very much its own universe. I love doing tons of visual research. Basically, each project is a way to do my own graduate study programming,” Christie said. “Whatever the style or technique or the visual language, I try to cater it to the story in some way. This one, I’d always imagined a...

The appeal of Gunpowder & Sky and T Bone Burnett’s wacky series is hard to package into one nifty logline: it’s an animated television show with a big bent towards music and untold stories from its history, but it’s also endearingly democratic in its choice of subjects — always compelling names, though from a slew of different genres — rendered in a raucous manner.

For its fourth season, debuting this Friday on the At&T Audience Network, the show is jumping right back into its unique space with a multi-faceted episode that partially revolves around The Who’s beloved (and dearly departed) drummer, Keith Moon. The series aims to tell stories “that fell through the floorboards of music history and brings them to the light of day via unique, hand-drawn animation and the raspy, baritone voice of Burnett.”

Bolstered by animations from Drew Christie and produced by legendary producer Bill Flangan,...

Direct from Sundance Blogs:

Come Swim

Credit: John GuleserianNight Shift

Credit: Estee OchoaThe Robbery

Credit: Lowell Meyer

Sixty-eight short films will complement the lineup of longer fare at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The short film slate aligns thematically with other Festival categories, including Midnight and The New Climate, the Festival’s new programming strand highlighting climate change and the environment. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 19–29.

The Institute’s support for short films extends internationally and year-round. Select Festival short films are presented as a traveling program at over 50 theaters in the U.S. and Canada each year, and short films and filmmakers take part in regional Master Classes geared towards supporting emerging shorts-makers in several cities. Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in partnership with The Guardian and The New York Times’ Op-Docs,...

With their feature film line-up now set (see here and here), Sundance have unveiled their 2017 short program, which in past years has included such gems as World of Tomorrow, Glove, and Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. This year’s line-up includes Kristen Stewart‘s Come Swim, featuring a score by St. Vincent, as well as Project X, the latest film from Citizenfour director Laura Poitras.

Check out the full line-up of 68 films below, along with the first look at Stewart’s film.

U.S. Narrative Short Films

American Paradise / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Joe Talbot) — A desperate man in Trump’s America tries to shift his luck with the perfect crime in this story inspired by true events.

Cecile on the Phone / U.S.A. (Director: Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Screenwriters: Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Ellen Greenberg) — Overwhelmed by doubt and confusion after her ex-boyfriend’s return to New York, Cecile embarks on...

Sundance Film Festival just gave attendees 68 new reasons to look forward to the January event with the announcement of their short films program that features several titles for genre fans to keep an eye on, including the creature short feature Kaiju Bunraku, the suburban satanic cult-centric Fucking Bunnies, and the post-apocalyptic Dawn of the Deaf.

We have the official press release below with full details, and stay tuned to Daily Dead for our upcoming coverage of the festival.

Press Release: Park City, Ut — Sixty-eight short films, announced today, will complement the lineup of longer fare at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The short film slate aligns thematically with other Festival categories, including Midnight and The New Climate, the Festival’s new programming strand highlighting climate change and the environment. The Festival hosts screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort January 19-29.

The Institute’s support for...

Short film lovers, never fear, the Sundance Film Festival has not forgotten about you. After rolling out their various feature categories, the annual winter festival has now announced their full short film lineup, including narratives, documentaries, animated offerings and midnight chillers. The slate is packed with picks from such diverse filmmakers as Laura Poitras (who will screen her latest, “Project X,” co-directed with Henrik Moltke, at the festival) and Kristen Stewart (who will make her directorial debut with “Come Swim”), along with Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Zachary Zezima, E.G. Bailey and many, many more.

If you’re hoping to find the next big thing in independent filmmaking, start here. Among the shorts the festival has shown in recent years are “World of Tomorrow,” “Thunder Road,” “Whiplash,” “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” and “Gregory Go Boom.”

Read More: Sundance 2017 Announces Competition and Next Lineups, Including Returning Favorites and Major Contenders

Mike Plante,...

The recently launched Los Angeles-based content creator said on Tuesday it has bought FilmBuff, the pioneering New York-based sales and distribution company.

FilmBuff is rebranded as Gunpowder & Sky Distribution and will operate from Los Angeles and New York under executive vice-president of distribution Janet Brown, former FilmBuff CEO.

The deal adds a distribution element to the in-house development, production and financing capabilities of Gunpowder & Sky, founded by former CEO of Viacom’s music group Van Toffler, former global head of corporate development and strategy at Endemol, Floris Bauer, and Otter Media, a joint venture between At&T and The Chernin Group.

“Janet and her team have a great track record as a collaborative, transparent and forward-looking distributor,” said Gunpowder & Sky president Floris Bauer.

“With the acquisition of FilmBuff we have now realised our early ambition of operating a soup-to-nuts studio, helping to bring to life the vision of our creative partners, and distribute...

Joel and Ethan Coen drop most of the sarcasm for their deeply felt character study. Everything's a big problem for Llewyn: a girl (Carey Mulligan), various agents, fellow performers, and a cat. I find Oscar Isaac's Llewyn to be wholly sympathetic, and that cat business is deeper than it looks. The terrific extras include a complete concert docu. Inside Llewyn Davis Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 794 2013 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 19, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett Pappi Corsicato, Max Casella, Jerry Grayson, Jeanine Seralles, Adam Driver, Stark Sands, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham. Cinematography Bruno Delbonnel Executive Music Producer T Bone Burnett Produced by Scott Rudin, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen Written and Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

If I'm not mistaken this is the first Criterion release of Coen Brothers movie.

Anyone who’s ever had their musical ambitions crushed by the ever oppressive forces of real life will find a great sense of empathy within Joel and Ethan Coen‘s great reimagination of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Inside Llewyn Davis. Essentially a dour depiction of the limitations of artistic ambition and musical performance as a viable career, as well as a remarkable portrait of the Village on the cusp being redefined by the arrival of Bob Dylan and the commercialism of the genre, the film stands as a unique companion piece to Don’t Look Back and I’m Not There that pays tribute to what came before with the rye eye of the Coens.

As music producer T Bone Burnett has said, the Coen brothers might be the luckiest filmmakers in the universe, having somehow managed to find both a fantastic actor and a fine musician encapsulated within...

Vimeo does not run pre-roll ads on its videos, but the artistically-oriented site has found other ways to support branded content. It has teamed up with Samsung for Connected, a series of ten short films that will each explore the ways in which human beings interact with technology.

Each episode of Connected is created by a top filmmaker (or filmmaking channel) from the Vimeo community. In a blog post introducing the project, the site notes that the creations of its Connected artists have been chosen as a Vimeo Staff Picks more than 60 times.

Four of these episodes are already available, and they vary wildly. Larry Cohen’s “Left to Your Own Devices” is a chatty comedy, Kogonada’s “Elemental” is marked by its exquisite cinematography, Greg Brunkalla’s “Hearing Colors” is a black-and-white interactive art piece, and Drew Christie’s “Department of Communication” (embedded below) features an old-school presentation and stop-motion animation.

You certainly can and probably should go home again, at least according to the faux approximation of himself in the 2007 pseudo-documentary/experimental homage My Winnipeg from Canadian auteur Guy Maddin. However, donning nostalgic garb calls for drastic reinvention. A director who has built a painstaking filmography of films imitating silent and lost titles from annals of vintage cinematic eras, his name can both provoke and evoke the emotional state phonetically represented by his surname. But whether one embraces his style or not, there’s no one quite like him.

This year is off to a great start for Maddin, beginning first with his second title to grace the Criterion collection (his 2006 title Brand Upon the Brain! also holds this distinction) as well as the premiere at the Sundance Film Festival of his latest work, the operatic The Forbidden Room (which pays homage to the two-headed Roman god, Janus, looking forwards and backwards simultaneously,...

The new issue of Film Quarterly tops today's round of news and views. Also: Brad Stevens on novelizations, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Michelangelo Antonioni, Jeff Reichert on Martin Scorsese, Michael Koresky on Terence Davies, Nick Pinkerton on Pee-wee's Playhouse, David Schmader on Drew Christie, plus news of forthcoming work from Philippe Grandrieux, Charlie Kaufman and Steve Carell, Robert Budreau and Ethan Hawke, and Jonathan Demme and Justin Timberlake. And the lineup for this year's AFI Fest is set. » - David Hudson...

The new issue of Film Quarterly tops today's round of news and views. Also: Brad Stevens on novelizations, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Michelangelo Antonioni, Jeff Reichert on Martin Scorsese, Michael Koresky on Terence Davies, Nick Pinkerton on Pee-wee's Playhouse, David Schmader on Drew Christie, plus news of forthcoming work from Philippe Grandrieux, Charlie Kaufman and Steve Carell, Robert Budreau and Ethan Hawke, and Jonathan Demme and Justin Timberlake. And the lineup for this year's AFI Fest is set. » - David Hudson...

YouTube’s importance at Sundance grows every year. This year, they held free workshops on how to maximize your use of YouTube. Here is the latest schedule of YouTube on Main Street events and press assets, please visit google site ytsundance2014 or Twitter at #YouTubeSundance.

YouTube offered film fans access to the 2014 Sundance Film Festival both on and offline through several initiatives including:

Youtube On Main Street (596 Main Street, Park City, Ut 84060)

Open January 16-25, 2014 at various times. Warm up at “YouTube on Main Street,” the place for the creative community to convene for must-see panels, happy hours, film receptions, screenings, talks and DJ sets. Free Wi-Fi and drinks are available to badge holders when programs are not in session.

Daily Events at YouTube on Main Street:

“Live @ Sundance” On The Sundance Film Festival Youtube Channel Live daily from January 17-24, 2014 at 11am Mst at www.youtube.com/sff. Whether you’re in Park City or Phuket, you can check out the best of the fest daily with “Live @ Sundance.” The one-hour talk show will air live daily at 11am Mst January 17-24, 2014 from “YouTube on Mainstreet” on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel. The show will feature guest hosts Shira Lazar,Casey Neistat andJimmy Conrad, filmmaker interviews, the latest news from the festival, exclusive sneak peeks and more.Yoga (Jan. 17-24; 7:30-9am Mst) - Breathe and ease into warrior pose at these daily yoga sessions. Cassey Ho, star of the popular blogilates channel on YouTube, will lead these classes on January 17-21 Free and open to the public.

Individual Events:

How and Why to Use YouTube Panel (Jan. 22; 2-3pm Mst) - Hear from independent filmmaker Casey Neistat about how he successfully uses YouTube to distribute his films and build an audience. Free and open to the public.YouTube on Main Street and Paste Afternoon Showcase (Jan. 22; 3- 6pm Mst) Paste Magazine’s Josh Jackson will introduce performances by Sleeping at Last, Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon, Michael Tolcher, and Carina Round. Press RSVP recommended.YouTube Party (Jan. 22; 9pm-1am Mst) Includes Dj set by Mick By invitation onlyNext and Midnight Cocktails (Jan. 23; 9:30-11pm Mst) By invitation onlyThey Came Together Film Reception (Jan. 24; 6:30-8:30pm Mst) - A reception for the world premiere of the romantic comedy. Includes a live Google+ Hangout with talent from the film including Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd. By invitation only.Film Contact: Shelby Kimlick – skimlick@mprm.com

Youtube Presents The 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program As the presenting sponsor of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program, YouTube will help showcase some of the official shorts in competition on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel. For a complete list of this year’s short films, please visit Sundance.org. Additionally, Sundance audiences will be exposed to some of the best content on YouTube with select videos from popular YouTube channels to run before short film screenings at the festival.

Youtube Audience Award

On Saturday, January 25, 2014, the YouTube Audience Award will be presented at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony to a short film in competition that garners the most amount of views on YouTube between January 16-24, 2014. Check out the films on the sff (Sundance Film Festival) YouTube channel or click here.

The Sundance Institute selected 15 films eligible for this award from this year’s competition that include:

Allergy to Originality

Directed by Drew Christie

4 min, U S A

Animation

A humorous animated 'Op-Doc' explores the rich history of adaptation, plagiarism, and other forms of appropriation in art.

The Big House

Directed by Musa Syeed

5 min, U S A/Yemen

fiction

When a young Yemeni boy ventures out of his cramped apartment and finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, he lets himself and his imagination run wild in the big house.

Burger

Directed by Magnus Mork

11 min, Norway/United Kingdom

fiction

It's late night in a burger bar.

Catherine

Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp

13 min, U S A

fiction

Catherine returns to work after a hiatus.

Chapel Perilous

Directed by Matthew Lessner

13 min, U S A

fiction

Levi Gold is paid an unexpected visit by Robin, a door-to-door salesman with nothing to sell. The ensuing encounter forces Levi to confront his true mystical calling, and the nature of reality itself. A metaphysical comedy trip-out with Sun Araw.

Crime The Animated Series (Marcus McGhee)

Directed by Alix Lambert and Sam Chou

4 min, U S A/Canada

Animated documentary

From Bank robbers to cops to victims to observers, Crime: The Animated Series explores how crime affects us all. The series is dark, compelling, heartbreaking, and yes - sometimes funny.

Cruising Electric (1980)

Brumby Boylston

1 min, U S A

fiction

The marketing department green-lights a red-light tie-in: 60 lost seconds of modern movie merchandising.

Dig

Directed by Toby Halbrooks

10 min, U S A

fiction

A young girl watches her father dig a hole in their backyard. Mystified about his purpose, the neighborhood comes to watch.

Funnel

Directed by Andre Hyland

7 min, U S A

fiction

A man's car breaks down and sends him on a quest across town that slowly turns into the most fantastically mundane adventure.

Gregory Go Boom

Directed by Janicza Bravo

17 min, U S A

fiction

A paraplegic man leaves home for the first time only to discover that life in the outside world is not the way he had imagined it.

MeTube: August Sings Carmen 'Habanera'

Directed by Daniel Moshel

4 min, Austria

fiction

George Bizet`s "Habanera" from Carmen has been reinterpreted and enhanced with electronic sounds for MeTube, a homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers, and gifted and less gifted self-promoters on the Internet.

Notes on Blindness

Directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney

13 min, United Kingdom

Documentary

In 1983, writer and theologian John Hull became blind. To help make sense of his loss, he began keeping an audio diary. Encompassing dreams, memories, and his imaginative life, Notes on Blindness immerses the viewer in Hull's experience of blindness.

Passer Passer

Directed by Louis Morton

4 min, U S A

Animation

An animated city symphony celebrates the hidden world of background noise.

Rat Pack Rat

Directed by Todd Rohal

19 min, U S A

fiction

A Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonator, hired to visit with a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself delivering last rights at the boy's bedside.

Tim and Susan Have Matching Handguns

Directed by Joe Callander

2 min, U S A

Documentary

Love is swapping clips with your spouse...

We're big fans of The New York Times' Op-Doc series, which offers a forum for opinionated documentaries produced in a variety of styles, all universally excellent. Recently, Op-Docs partnered with the Sundance Institute in a three-part series of videos produced by indie filmmakers. The New York Times's projects were among the first short films to screen at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival with "Allergy to Originality,” an animated Op-Doc by filmmaker Drew Christie and “Notes on Blindness," directed by Peter Middleton & James Spinney. All Op-Docs can be seen here. The third in the Sundance Institute of Op-Docs is "Sarah's Uncertain Path" by Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos, directors of the Sundance documentary "Rich Hill." Their short documentary profiles a pregnant teenager in Missouri. Watch it below:...

They're short, free, and online: 15 of this year's 66 selected shorts are available for viewing (ranging from one to 19 minutes in length) on YouTube.The winner will receive the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Audience Award. Learn about five that embody this year's trends here. And check out the viewable 15 below. Each view counts as a vote. The winner will be announced January 25th. Allergy to Originality In this animated Op-Doc by Drew Christie, two men discuss whether anything is truly original — especially in movies and books. Burger It's late night in a burger bar in Wales... The Big House When a Yemeni boy finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, he lets himself and (his imagination) run wild in the big house. Catherine Catherine returns to work after a hiatus. Chapel Perilous Robin, a door-to-door salesman with nothing to sell, pays Levi Gold an unexpected visit. The ensuing...

The 9th annual Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, aka Flex, was held on February 15-17 in Gainesville, Florida. This year was one of the fest’s competitive years — (it alternates years with a curated event) – so they gave out 12 awards to 14 deserving filmmakers.

Awards were given out to both film and video artists and were broken up into both long form and short form categories. The film awards included projects in 35mm (Scott Stark), 16mm (Robert Todd) and Super 8 (Paul Clipson).

Below is the full list of winners. And below that is the full program lineup of the fest.

Film (long)

1. Scott Stark, Traces ($600 Kodak product grant)

2. Josh Gibson, Kudzu Vine ($200)

3. Shinya Isobe, Eden ($100)

Film (short)

1. Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy, Awe Shocks ($600 Kodak product grant)

2. Robert Todd, Cove ($200)

3. Paul Clipson, Compound Eyes No. 1 ($100)

Video (long)

1. Ben Russell and Jim Drain, Ponce de León ($300)

2. Benjamin Pearson, Former Models ($200)

3. Paul Tarragó,...

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

This year, 32 shorts were selected from a pool of 4,038. From now until the festival's close at the end of January, Huffington Post Culture will be bringing you diary-style entries from the storytellers, animators and documentarians behind these 32 works, as they navigate a path that's new to many of them and invisible to most of us. Our first five entries start below (you can go directly to any individual post by clicking on the filmmakers' names below). Enjoy!