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The Sundance Film Festival is regarded as one of the most prestigious independent film festivals, where filmmakers have been premiering their movies and documentaries since 1984.

The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.

Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors, and actors to develop their original independent projects.

By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...

Parker Posey's signature acting style and delivery make her instantly recognizable on screen. She has been called the "Queen of the Indies," having spent most of the 90s starring in independent films like Kicking and Screaming and Personal Velocity. She's also acquired a fan base through her supporting roles in mainstream movies like Superman Returns and Suburbia, proving that no box can contain her.

The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.

Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...

Marisa Tomei plays a lovelorn — and love-addicted! — tugboat captain in writer-director Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me.” That may sound twee in theory, but Miller and Tomei anchor the character, an unpretentious and brazen-foot-forward woman named Katrina, in an emotional reality for this screwball indie comedy.

No one character gets top billing in “She Came to Me,” whether Katrina, or the writer’s-blocked opera composer Steven (Peter Dinklage) she seduces before becoming his muse, or Steven’s wife Patricia (Anne Hathaway), an uber-organized psychiatrist who thinks she’s breezy but most certainly isn’t.

The film shot on location in Brooklyn, whose harbor Katrina operates out of. In the film, Steven, faced with losing a major commission, takes a long, lonely walk that lands him in the arms and bed of Katrina, who ultimately becomes the subject of his next hugely successful opera.

In order to prepare for the role,...

No genre of the last few decades can get on my nerves like the indie quirkfest. You know: those movies that keep poking you in the ribs to giggle at their cutely addled characters with their adorable eccentricities — I’m talking woe-is-us hipster comedies like “Pieces of April,” “Lars and the Real Girl” and the pop-crossover “Citizen Kane” of the genre, “Little Miss Sunshine.” The trouble with these movies is that even as they pretend to be lifesize, they’re too conscious about packaging their prefab weirdness; they’re edgy sitcoms minus the laugh tracks. But Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me,” which opened the Berlin Film Festival today, demonstrates how the indie quirkfest can be resonant and real, with characters who have soul instead of a chewy center.

The movie’s main figures aren’t just suffering from off-kilter dilemmas — they have problems we might characterize as everyday mental illness.

With the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in full swing, and our own Chris Bumbray covering the event, we wanted to know what film is your favorite of Sundance’s top prize: The Grand Jury Prize- Dramatic. From the very first winner (Old Enough) in 1984 to the most recent winner (Nanny) in 2022, let us know your favorite. If you’ve been to Sundance, please share your experience(s) in the comments section.

Favorite Sundance Grand Jury Prize WinnerNanny (2022)Coda (2021)Minari (2020)Clemency (2019)The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)The Birth of a Nation (2016)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)Whiplash (2014)Fruitvale Station (2013)Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)Like Crazy (2011)Winter's Bone (2010)Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)Frozen River (2008)Padre Nuestro (2007)Quinceañera (2006)Forty Shades of Blue (2005)Primer (2004)American Splendor (2003)Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)The Believer (2001)Girlfight (2000)You Can Count on Me (2000)Three...

If 2021 has been a calvacade of bad decisions, dashed hopes, and warning signs for cinema’s strength, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming has at least buttressed our hopes for something like a better tomorrow. Anyway. The Channel will let us ride out distended (holi)days in the family home with an extensive Alfred Hitchcock series to bring the family together—from the established Rear Window and Vertigo to the (let’s just guess) lesser-seen Downhill and Young and Innocent—Johnnie To’s Throw Down and Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons in their Criterion editions, and some streaming premieres: Ste. Anne, Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over, and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.

Special notice to Yvonne Rainer’s brain-expanding Film About a Woman Who . . .—debuting in “Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers,” a series that does as it says on the tin—and a Joseph Cotten retro boasting Ambersons,...

A new film from acclaimed filmmaker Rebecca Miller is enough to get anyone excited. But add to it the fact that the new feature, “She Came to Me,” has an incredible cast led by Anne Hathaway, and suddenly, the romantic comedy is one of our most-anticipated releases of the next couple of years.

Read More: ‘Solos’: A Corny, Pandemic-Influenced Melodrama That Feels Like Tone-Deaf Celebrities Singing “Imagine” [Review]

Rebecca Miller, who previously helmed films such as “Maggie’s Plan,” “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” and “Personal Velocity,” is set to helm a new rom-com titled, “She Came to Me.” And sweetening the deal is the fact that the cast is set to be led by Anne Hathaway, Tahar Rahim, Marisa Tomei, Joanna Kulig, and Matthew Broderick.

Continue reading Anne Hathaway, Tahar Rahim, Marisa Tomei & More Join Rebecca Miller’s Rom-Com ‘She Came To Me’ at The Playlist.

Romantic comedy to star Marisa Tomei, Tahir Rahim, Joanna Kulig and Anne Hathaway.

Anne Hathaway, Tahar Rahim, Marisa Tomei and Cold War star Joanna Kulig are to star in Rebecca Miller’s romantic comedy She Came To Me, which Protagonist Pictures will introduce to buyers at the Cannes virtual market (June 21-25).

Matthew Broderick has also joined the cast of the film, which will begin principal photography this autumn in New York. Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler are producing alongside Miller and Damon Cardasis from Round Films, while CAA Media Finance will handle North America sales.

The multi-generational...

Writer, director and actress Rebecca Miller discusses a few of her favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)

The Ballad Of Jack And Rose (2005)

The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee (2009)

Maggie’s Plan (2015)

Explorers (1985)

The Way We Were (1973)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)

Annie Hall (1977)

Repulsion (1965)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Knife In The Water (1962)

The Tenant (1976)

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Persona (1966)

The Magician (1958)

Hour Of The Wolf (1968)

The Virgin Spring (1960)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The Exorcist (1973)

The Shining (1980)

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Regarding Henry (1991)

Angela (1995)

Badlands (1973)

Casino (1995)

On The Waterfront (1954)

My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Jules and Jim (1962)

The Bitter Tears Of Petra von Kant (1972)

Wings Of Desire (1987)

The Killer Inside Me (1976)

The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Married To The Mob (1988)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Dune (1984)

Imitation Of Life (1934)

Imitation Of Life (1959)

Written On The Wind (1956)

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

All That Heaven Allows...

In a world where only 18 (a number that’s doubled in the last seven years) of the 390 members of the American Society of Cinematographers are women, the trailblazing career of Ellen Kuras has long been a guiding light, but not simply because of the odds she overcame, but the work itself.

“Her work told me it was possible not just to be a female Dp, because all that is is a gender, but she’s good at what she does,” said “Black Panther” cinematographer and devoted Kuras fan Rachel Morrison. “Her work really spoke to me and spoke to the masses, and I liked that the work wasn’t gendered.”

Kuras has given us cinematography as bold as the films she’s drawn to, and the directors who are drawn to her. When we look back at what was best about independent films from the 1990s it’s often best...

The Woodstock Film Festival, New York’s self-declared “fiercely independent” weeklong cinema celebration, wrapped its 20th edition on October 6. Held within the welcoming milieu of the Hudson Valley, the forward-thinking gathering hosts films, panels, parties and award ceremonies not just in Woodstock, but also in neighboring towns Rosendale, Rhinebeck, Saugerties and Kingston.

At the heart of Wff are co-founders Laurent Rejto and Meira Blaustein, who, along with a number of devoted industry stalwarts (many have resided in the region), ensure that smart, inclusive programming of contemporary narratives, documentaries, shorts and animations are screened. It’s why the festival has developed an identity all its own.

In honor of the Woodstock Film Festival’s 20th anniversary, Variety sat down with Rejto to look back at the road taken to reach the milestone.

What was your vision for the Woodstock Film Festival two decades ago?

The vision was to create a filmmaker-friendly festival,...

Following its premiere at the New York Film Festival last fall, “Arthur Miller: Writer” is headed to HBO. The documentary was directed by Rebecca Miller — who, not coincidentally, happens to be Arthur Miller’s daughter — and has earned favorable reviews for its intimate, all-in-the-family look at its subject. Watch an exclusive trailer below.

“Art is long, life short,” Miller says. “I forgot the Latin.”

Here’s the synopsis: “‘Arthur Miller: Writer’ is an intimate portrait of one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century. The documentary is told from the unique perspective of an award-winning filmmaker: his daughter, Rebecca Miller. The film includes material never before seen by the public, including in-depth interviews and home movie-style footage, providing insights into Miller that are quite different from the ones the public has previously seen. Rebecca Miller opens the door to the man behind the icon, delves into the...

The following essay was produced as part of the 2017 Nyff Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 55th edition of the New York Film Festival.

Documentaries often get personal with their subjects, sometimes in ways that are essential to the powerful filmmaking on display. But what does it look like when family, so often the subject, mingles with the forces behind the camera?

Two new documentary films, “Arthur Miller: Writer” and “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” position their eponymous 20th century literary figures beneath their progeny’s gazes. Plenty ambitious, often neutral, and never too critical, these filmmakers seek a delicate, ethical balance between titillating an audience with the private life behind a public persona and executing a squeaky-clean legacy. Writer and director Rebecca Miller is tasked with her father Arthur, the man who used theater to confront the fallacies of the...

Avail yourself of an exclusive clip from “Arthur Miller: Writer,” Rebecca Miller’s documentary portrait of her father. The film is set to premiere at the New York Film Festival before airing on the network in March of next year. Watch the clip below.

Read More:Nicole Kidman and Amy Schumer Join Rebecca Miller’s Intertwining Love Story ‘She Came to Me’

Here’s the synopsis: “Rebecca Miller’s film is a portrait of her father, his times and insights, built around impromptu interviews shot over many years in the family home. This celebration of the great American playwright is quite different from what the public has ever seen. It is a close consideration of a singular life shadowed by the tragedies of the Red Scare and the death of Marilyn Monroe; a bracing look at success and failure in the public eye; an honest accounting of human frailty; a...

Far from a conventional biographical documentary, Arthur Miller: Writer, which had its world premiere in Telluride, offers a highly personal portrait of the American playwright who died in 2005. Rebecca Miller, herself an acclaimed filmmaker (Personal Velocity, Maggie’s Plan), is also Miller’s daughter by his third wife, photographer Inge Morath. Rebecca narrates the film herself and includes her own interviews with her father, which she filmed over the last 25 years of her father’s life. As she says at the start of the film, she has been working on the project “almost my entire adult life.” The result is fascinating,...

Here’s how studios say they see it: Sure, we really want to hire women directors. But there’s almost no studio movie that isn’t big budget, and we can’t find women who have the experience necessary to handle the really big movies. (Never mind Colin Trevorrow. Or Marc Webb. Or Gareth Edwards. Or Jon Watts.)

Of course, that logic is a vicious cycle at best, but here’s a chance to break it. Director Reed Morano’s dazzling execution of the first three episodes of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” suggests another excellent source for future women directors: top cinematographers.

Read More: 7 Female Genre Filmmakers You Should Get to Know Right Now

Women cinematographers work harder, longer, and have to be gifted and tough in order to keep landing jobs. As a cinematographer, make one mistake and you’re through. Any working cinematographer has more than...

Here’s how studios say they see it: Sure, we really want to hire women directors. But there’s almost no studio movie that isn’t big budget, and we can’t find women who have the experience necessary to handle the really big movies. (Never mind Colin Trevorrow. Or Marc Webb. Or Gareth Edwards. Or Jon Watts.)

Of course, that logic is a vicious cycle at best, but here’s a chance to break it. Director Reed Morano’s dazzling execution of the first three episodes of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” suggests another excellent source for future women directors: top cinematographers.

Read More: 7 Female Genre Filmmakers You Should Get to Know Right Now

Women cinematographers work harder, longer, and have to be gifted and tough in order to keep landing jobs. As a cinematographer, make one mistake and you’re through. Any working cinematographer has more than...

Rebecca Miller continues to be arguably one of the most undervalued directors — female or not — working right now. Despite assembling an impressive body of work including “The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee,” “The Ballad Of Jack And Rose,” “Personal Velocity,” and most recently, the utterly charming “Maggie’s Plan,” her films don’t tend to breakout beyond the arthouse.

Continue reading Steve Carell, Amy Schumer & Nicole Kidman Team For Rebecca Miller’s ‘She Came To Me’ at The Playlist.

Rebecca Miller to direct and produce comedic drama.

Steve Carell, Amy Schumer and Nicole Kidman will star in She Came To Me based on Miller’s screenplay.

The story of family and the complexities of modern life weaves together love stories and plays out against the world of contemporary opera and tugboats.

Miller will producethrough her Round Films with producing partner Damon Cardasis, alongside OddLot founder Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane.

Miller has written and directed Maggie’s Plan, The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, The Ballad Of Jack And Rose, Personal Velocity, and Angela.

OddLot Entertainment recently co-produced and co-financed Taylor Sheridan’s Hell Or High Water.

The slate includes recent Sundance selection Landline, and National Geographic Channel’s first scripted series Genius, the Albert Einstein drama that receives its world premiere in Tribeca next month.

Most film critics who post annual 10 Best lists follow simple rules, and I am no exception — include a few likely Oscar contenders, a few popular hits, and at least one arcane title from the wild blue yonder, either foreign or up-and-coming indie, presented in short readable blurbs. (No photo gallery here.)

And yes, while I keep to a pure Top 10, I do cheat a bit with some extra categories below. So shoot me.

1. “The Jungle Book”

Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks took Rudyard Kipling’s classic tales of Mowgli and his brothers and, with help from James Cameron and Martin Scorsese’s go-to VFX master Rob Legato, created a seamlessly natural digital world with many vibrant animal characters — and one live boy (Neel Sethi). Maybe Favreau makes it look too easy. This isn’t fantasy-world “Avatar.” This is digital India. He calls up fond memories of Disney’s 1967 animated musical,...

Most film critics who post annual 10 Best lists follow simple rules, and I am no exception — include a few likely Oscar contenders, a few popular hits, and at least one arcane title from the wild blue yonder, either foreign or up-and-coming indie, presented in short readable blurbs. (No photo gallery here.)

And yes, while I keep to a pure Top 10, I do cheat a bit with some extra categories below. So shoot me.

1. “The Jungle Book”

Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks took Rudyard Kipling’s classic tales of Mowgli and his brothers and, with help from James Cameron and Martin Scorsese’s go-to VFX master Rob Legato, created a seamlessly natural digital world with many vibrant animal characters — and one live boy (Neel Sethi). Maybe Favreau makes it look too easy. This isn’t fantasy-world “Avatar.” This is digital India. He calls up fond memories of Disney’s 1967 animated musical,...

Rebecca Miller’s new witty romantic comedy “Maggie’s Plan” charmed audiences and critics when it premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and then later when was it released in theaters this past May. Now, it soon will enchant audiences when it hits home video.

Read More: Toronto Review: With ‘Maggie’s Plan,’ Greta Gerwig Officially Owns Her Own Genre

The film follows Maggie (Greta Gerwig), a vibrant and independent New Yorker, decides to become a single mother with the help of a former college acquaintance (Travis Fimmel), but the initial plan comes up against fate when she meets and falls for “ficto-critical anthropologist” John (Ethan Hawke), whose marriage to Columbia University professor Georgette (Julianne Moore) is falling apart. Years later when Maggie finds herself falling out of love with her now husband, she devises a new plan to reconnect John with Georgette. The film also stars...

Whether you wanted to or not, you probably learned a lot of people’s seven favorite films yesterday. #fav7films was the hashtag du jour, presumably because a standard top 10 would have been more likely to go over Twitter’s 140-character limit, and among the many civvies chiming in were a number of actors and filmmakers. Here, for your perusing pleasure, is a sampling of their favorites.

Read More: Emmy Nominees React To Snubs And Surprises On Twitter

#fav7films

(I can’t resist)

24 hr Party People

The Man Who Would Be King

Diner

Sound of Music

Office Space

Kung Fu Hustle

La Dolce Vita

— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) August 16, 2016

#fav7films Jesus’s son. Shortcuts. Royal tenenbaums. Best in show. City of God. Personal Velocity. The big Lebowski.

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) August 16, 2016

#fav7films

Singin’ in the Rain

Squid and the Whale

Broadcast News

Hannah and Her Sisters

Bob & Carol...

Chicago – Quirky Greta Gerwig is at it again (being quirky), and this time she’s looking for solutions in “Maggie’s Plan.” The made-in-New-York-City film has overtures of Woody Allen, combined with “Crossing Delancey.” Director Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) produces a valentine to all her influences and settings.

Maggie (Gerwig) is a single woman with a “plan.” She will use in-vitro fertilization in order to have a child, given that her track record with relationships is not good. Through her academic work, she meets John (Ethan Hawke), a professor whose shaky marriage to Georgette (Julianne Moore, adopting a Meryl Streep-like accent) is distracting his plans to finish his novel. John and Maggie hook up, and John leaves his marriage to be with her, and their newborn daughter. Maggie now has executed her plan, but was it the right one?

Director Rebecca Miller (center) with Greta Gerwig and Bill Hader...

Greta Gerwig isn’t exactly a movie star, but she’s an auteur. Her characters aren’t all the same, but they’re close enough to inhabit the same emotional zip code: young, over-intellectual women struggling with self-definition and the direction of their lives. Rebecca Miller directed “Maggie’s Plan,” adapting an unpublished novel by Karen Rinaldi, but the film is so reminiscent of movies like “Frances Ha” and “Mistress America” that it’s hard to believe Gerwig didn’t write the script herself. Also Read: Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning Join Annapurna Pictures' '20th Century Women' If...

"We are the weirdos, mister." More than any other line of dialogue fromThe Craft, this quote captures the lasting appeal of the seminal teen classic. Released on May 3, 1996, writer-director Andrew Fleming's ode to teenage pariahdom finished No 1. at the box office in its opening weekend, surprising industry onlookers and beating out the heavily-hyped Pamela Anderson starring vehicle Barb Wire. Though both films featured woman protagonists, they couldn't have been more different; while Anderson's outsized brand of femininity was designed to service the male gaze, The Craft was a film about teenage girls, for teenage girls.  Unlike Amy Heckerling's candy-coated Clueless -- the standard-bearer of mid-1990s teen cinema -- it dove headfirst into the darker undercurrents of the young female psyche. While not a hit on the level of Heckerling's film, The Craft made a decent return at the box office and found even more success in its post-theatrical run,...

I first discovered Rebecca Miller at Sundance 1995 with her remarkable debut, family drama "Angela," and have been tracking her very different films ever since, from "Personal Velocity," an early digital experiment based on her short stories, to "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" starring her husband Daniel Day Lewis, to her most accessible and entertaining movie to date, "Maggie's Plan," which played to raves at the Toronto and New York film fests and hits theaters via Sony Pictures Classics on May 20. Miller explains her idiosyncratic career trajectory, how she writes and puts these movies together, and the pleasure she found shooting this delightful romantic triangle (based on a story by Karen Rinaldi) in New York City with her gifted trio of actors, Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore.  Read More: Sony PIctures Classics Chases Tiff Hit 'Maggie's Plan'  This witty comedy of manners has been compared to the work of.

You can count on Sundance to be a place where movies that happen to be directed by women and also happen to star actors who happen to be female are celebrated. It's a phenomenon not lost on director Rebecca Miller, whose film Maggie’s Plan — about a woman (Greta Gerwig) entangled in a love triangle with a professor (Ethan Hawke) and his wife (Julianne Moore) — screened Friday in Park City.Despite another year of female-centric films bowing at the fest — including entries from directors Clea Duvall, Sian Heder, Meera Menon, and others — festival vet Miller (her debut film Personal Velocity took home the grand jury prize in 2002) told Vulture in advance of her premiere that Hollywood is “Absolutely still in an era where these types of movies aren’t seen as commercially viable. There is a fear of the woman protagonist.” Miller, who is the daughter of playwright Arthur...

The first ever Writers Lab, a program targeting female screenwriters over 40, took place at Wiawaka on Lake George, New York from September 18-20, 2015.

The group of mentors included Caroline Kaplan ("Boyhood," "Time Out of Mind," "Personal Velocity"), Kirsten Smith ("Legally Blonde," "Ten Things I Hate About You"), Jessica Bendinger ("Bring It On," "Aquamarine"), Mary Jane Skalski ("Win Win," "The Station Agent"),Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Secret Life of Bees," "Beyond the Lights"),Lydia Dean-Pilcher ("The Lunchbox," The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Meg LeFauve ("Inside Out," "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"), and Darnell Martin (“Cadillac Records” and “I Like It Like That”).

Launched by New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift) and Iris, a collective of women filmmakers dedicated to championing the female voice in narrative film, was funded in part by Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, and with the collaboration of the Writers Guild of America East.

Motivated by its screenwriting members who were frustrated with the paucity of development opportunities, Iris founders Elizabeth Kaiden, Kyle Ann Stoke, and Nitza Wilson approached Nywift to support a screenwriting Lab exclusively for this demographic and The Writers Lab came into being.

I spoke with Iris cofounder Elizabeth Kaiden to follow up about the first Writers Lab.

Kouguell: How many screenplays were submitted for consideration?

Kaiden: There were approximately 3,500 screenplays submitted. The selected participants were Sarah Bird ("Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen), Vanessa Carmichael ("The American"). Tracy Charlton ("Raised Up"), Kellen Hertz ("Ashburn"), Anna Hozian ("Anchor Baby"), Lyralen Kaye ("St John the Divine in Iowa"), Jan Kimbrough ("The Glastonbury Cow Party"), Billie Jo Mason ("The Cargo"), Peres Owino ("Basketweaver"), Gretchen Somerfeld ("Face Value"), Janet Stilson ("Jaguar Trail"), and Kim Turner ("It Goes Like This").

Kouguell: What were some highlights from the three-day Lab?

Kaiden: Highlights included the chemistry, warmth and enthusiasm of the group, the bucolic setting in which serious and thoughtful individual meetings between writers and mentors took place, the outstanding, locally sourced, group meals presented by Wiawaka chef Meg, and evening conversations around a bonfire. Oh, and the weather was fabulous.

Kouguell: What is the next step for these writers selected for the Lab?

Kaiden: Writers are all revising their work and communicating with each other. They will use the feedback, resources, references, and friendships they took away from the Lab to further develop their scripts and their opportunities.

Kouguell: In addition to the one-on-one meetings, what other events took place?

Kaiden: There were three panel discussions in which the mentors addressed specific craft issues and general industry insight, informal conversations, group meals, as well as small, directed group conversations led by Nywift Board President Alexis Alexanian to address the challenges writers face in navigating the film world.

Kouguell: What do you feel were some of the most positive outcomes from the weekend in Lake George?

Kaiden: The most exciting outcome of this venture, for me, is uncovering and bringing to public attention the field of women screenwriters, particularly its enormous breadth and depth. The most positive outcomes of the weekend Lab, for me, include the sense of empowerment I believe the Lab gave the writers to continue their work and develop their projects, and the supportive community of writers we all discovered, which can only further our goals of ensuring that more of their stories will reach audiences.

Kouguell: Will the Writers Lab take place again next year?

Kaiden: Yes.

Kouguell: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kaiden: We were excited and delighted by the energy and enthusiasm at the Lab. It felt like an important event. It Was an important event. We discussed and debated issues of theme, tone, craft, structure, character, as well as production, representation, and target markets. The mentors were unbelievably focused, supportive and encouraging. Serious work was done. The writers left feeling, I think, that their voices had been heard, and that they should all continue to tell their stories. I think you will be hearing more from these writers and about these projects. And, although that would have been enough, everyone had a blast.

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...

Exclusive: Protagonist concludes deals on Rebecca Miller comedy, which was sold to Sony at Toronto.

Protagonist Pictures has concluded global deals on Rebecca Miller’s comedy Maggie’s Plan, which was scooped up by Sony Pictures Classics for North America, UK and Australia/New Zealand and other selected territories after Tiff in a deal negotiated by CAA and Cinetic Media.

Prior to Tiff Protagonist inked a deal with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) for Spain, Italy, Latin America, Scandinavia and South Africa.

Other deals to have closed on the film include Germany (Mfa), France (Diaphana), Japan (Shochiku), Korea (Aud) and airlines(Cinesky).

In further deals, the film has been acquired for Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), former Yugoslavia (McF), Czech/Slovak Republic (CinemArt) and Turkey (Bir Film).

Other agreements were secured for the Middle East (Front Row Entertainment), Hong Kong (Golden Scene), India (PVR), Indonesia (Pt Prima), Taiwan (Cai), Malaysia (Tanweer), Benelux (Imagine), Israel...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired distribution rights in North America to “Maggie’s Plan,” as well as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Cis, Hungary, Romania, China and various other Asian territories. One of the hits of the recent Toronto International Film Festival, the fifth feature from “Personal Velocity” writer-director Rebecca Miller, by far her funniest, is based on a story by Karen Rinaldi. The New York romantic comedy will also play at the New York Film Festival, which gets under way on Saturday. This witty comedy of manners stars Greta Gerwig as a 30-something academic who seeks to have a child on her own. She arranges for a sperm donation from a handsome friend but winds up in love with a professor (Ethan Hawke) who is writing a book and raising two children but not feeling supported by his careerist wife (Julianne Moore). Needless to say, complications ensue, and this well-matched,...

Presented by New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift) and Iris, The Writers Lab is funded with the generous support of Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep. The one-of-a-kind lab will bring 12 women screenwriters over the age of 40 together with established mentors from the film industry for an intimate gathering and intensive workshop at Wiawaka Center for Women on Lake George, NY from September 18-20, 2015. The Lab is also presented in collaboration with the Writers Guild of America, East.

Being the only program of its kind, The Writers Lab evolved in recognition of the absence of the female voice in narrative film, along with the lack of support for script development. The lab will offer these 12 promising features by women over 40 a springboard to production.

The prestigious group of mentors includes Caroline Kaplan ("Boyhood," "Time Out of Mind," "Personal Velocity"), Kirsten Smith ("Legally Blonde," "Ten Things I Hate About You"), Jessica Bendinger ("Bring It On," "Aquamarine"), Mary Jane Skalski ("Win Win," "The Station Agent"), Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Secret Life of Bees," "Beyond the Lights"), Lydia Dean-Pilcher ( "The Lunchbox,"The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Meg LeFauve ("Inside Out," "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"). During one-on-one meetings they will provide the participants with insightful feedback and will take part in additional events to inspire the artists to hone their creative vision.

The Writers Lab, which was first announced at this year’s Tribeca film festival, received over 3,500 submissions, which encouraged the organizer to support not eight, as they originally had planned, but 12 women in film.

The selected participants are Sarah Bird ("Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen), Vanessa Carmichael ("The American"). Tracy Charlton ("Raised Up"), Kellen Hertz ("Ashburn"), Anna Hozian ("Anchor Baby"), Lyralen Kaye ("St John the Divine in Iowa"), Jan Kimbrough ("The Glastonbury Cow Party"), Billie Mason ("The Cargo"), Peres Owino ("Basketweaver"), Gretchen Somerfeld ("Face Value"), Janet Stilson ("Jaguar Trail"), and Kim Turner ("It Goes Like This").

You can find out more about this initiative and others from Nywift Here...

While he’s more recently been known for horrors and collaborating with Richard Linklater on the likes of Boyhood, Ethan Hawke has decided it’s time for a few more laughs. He’s joined the cast of Rebecca Miller’s new film Maggie’s Plan alongside Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel, Julianne Moore and Greta Gerwig. Miller, known for films such as Personal Velocity, The Ballad Of Jack And Rose and The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, has here adapted a story from an unpublished novel by Karen Rinaldi. Gerwig is starring as a young woman trying to make her own way in New York City and all the emotional peaks and troughs that come with it. It’s aiming to put a new spin on the well-worn romantic comedy idea. Though she’d originally wanted to kick off shooting late last year after Gerwig joined the film in January,...

In the run-up to the Efm in Berlin, Protagonist Pictures announced final casting on Rebecca Miller comedy Maggie’s Plan.

Boyhood star Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader (The Skeleton Twins), Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids) and Travis Fimmel (‘Vikings‘)have joined Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) and Julianne Moore (Still Alice) in the cast.

Maggie’s Plan is described as “a screwball take on the fluctuations of modern love that puts a new spin on the romantic comedy”.

The film, based on a story by Karen Rinaldi, is set to start production in New York on Feb 23.

Rachael Horovitz (Moneyball) produces alongside Miller and Damon Cardasis.

The film is being financed by Freedom Media, Locomotive, Hyperion and Three Point Capital.

Executive producers are Freedom’s Phil Stephenson and Temple Williams, Locomotive’s Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Alexandra Kerry, and Hyperion’s Michael Mailis and Susan Wrubel.

CAA and Cinetic are representing North American rights, while international...

Susan Kouguell speaks with director Aaron Brookner on his journey of re-mastering and re-leasing the documentary on William Burroughs, Burroughs: The Movie (1983) directed by his uncle, Howard Brookner, and Smash the Control Machine the feature documentary that tells the story of Aaron Brookner’s investigation into the mysterious life and missing films of Howard Brookner, who died of AIDS at age 34 in 1989 on the cusp of fame. Howard Brookner’s films also include Bloodhounds on Broadway (1989) and Robert Wilson and The Civil Wars (1987).

Born in New York City, Aaron Brookner began his career working on Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes and Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity before making the award-winning documentary short The Black Cowboys (2004). His first feature documentary was a collaboration with writer Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront), and his film, The Silver Goat (2012) was the first feature created exclusively for iPad, released as an App and downloaded across 24 countries, making it into the top 50 entertainment apps in the UK and Czech Republic.

The re-mastered print of Burroughs: The Movie will have its premier University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, 2014.

Susan Kouguell: On your Kickstarter site you wrote:

“Howard Brookner directed three films before his death in 1989 from AIDS at the age of thirty-four. In the final year of his life he wrote:

If I live on it is in your memories and the films I made.

It was this quote that inspired me, Howard's nephew and enthusiastic Burroughsian, to search for the missing print of his first film, Burroughs: The Movie. After a long search I found the only print in good condition and embarked on a project to digitally remaster it and make it available to the public.”

This has been both a personal and artistic journey for you. When did this journey begin?

Aaron Brookner: It probably began when Howard died, originally. My lasting memories of him were of watching him make his final movie Bloodhounds on Broadway on the set, hanging out together and rough-housing, walking around downtown, the secret handshake and spoken greeting we had, the cool toys from Japan he brought me, messing around with video cameras, trips down to Miami, and oddly enough the Rolling Stones 3D halftime show during the 1989 Super Bowl.

But I also had seen him in a hospital bed. I had been to the AIDS ward. I was over at his apartment quite a bit during his final few months of life. Watched his funeral. And I was seven. Kids know everything that’s going on around them even when they don’t. I guess this was the case and that making Smash the Control Machine is some sort of way to articulate my childlike perspective on the story, as an adult. It’s also a way to satisfy my curiosity.

Howard, I’ve found out, in some weird cinematic way, left clues all over the world really, which show how he lived, and what he lived. He documented everything.

A few years ago when I started the search for the Burroughs: The Movie print, I started to find all these pieces to his puzzle. Not to mention his films! So I went all the way and committed to gathering up everything and telling his story, which has brought me into contact with the people who knew him best -- and survived him -- who each knew a completely different yet same Howard. It’s amazing to watch Howard come to life in the eyes of someone that knew him, through the stories they recall.

It’s been a very interesting journey, and still is. It was a hard one to start, obviously, because of the awful tragedy looming at the end, and I was sensitive to not want to stir this back up for the people who really suffered his death, but the feeling has really changed. There is so much life and joy of living and making movies that transcends through Howard’s work which I’ve discovered, and in the people who knew him best; that this feeling of life and art really trumps death and AIDS, and a lot of the political bulls--t that fueled that fire, and this is a good feeling, and sort of what I hope to bring out in my film.

Sk: You successfully raised more than the requested budget with Kickstarter to fund your film. Talk about the pros and cons of using this crowdsourcing resource.

Ab: A big pro is that you skip all the gatekeepers, which saves a lot of time. You go straight to the audience and in the case of remastering Howard’s Burroughs: The Movie film there was pretty straightforward thinking behind it. I thought if enough people know about this film and want it back, or if they want it for the first time, they’ll help me deliver. If not, so be it.

A con, and I don’t know if I’d call it a con or just the reality, is that you’re never getting something for nothing; you’ve got a lot of work to do to run a crowd-funding campaign. It’s great if there’s an audience for your project, but how are they gonna hear about it?! My partner, Paula Vaccaro, and I spent months working on this day and night, not knowing if we’d even succeed. A little stressful...but overall I think it’s amazing that crowd-sourcing exists, and that it can work. It’s also a pretty great exercise in clearly communicating what you want to do and why, and what’s the plan for how.

Sk: Smash the Control Machine, the film you are making on Howard’s story and the search for his lost work was selected in its early stages for the Berlinale. What was that experience like for you?

Ab: In a lot of ways it was like the Burroughs: The Movie Kickstarter experience, in that first of all, it was a great endorsement and support to have, and that it certainly helped to streamline the concept and see what worked and what didn’t.

We were specifically selected to the Talent Project Market at Berlinale as the only documentary of 10 total films from around the world. It was a few very intense and focused days like a workshop on all the different angles around your film, that as a creator you might not be thinking about -- like what your pitch is going to be and how to pitch for that matter -- to what are the comparable going numbers around and how an international co-production might work. It’s great to learn this because then, after the workshop days, you’re sitting at a table where film market people are coming to meet you and talk to you, and you kind of understand where they are coming from, so you’re confident in talking about your project, and knowing what’s good or not good for it.

Sk: Do you have any international partners with whom you are working?

Ab: The main production company for the film is Pinball London, which is mainly based in London, UK, our other partners are of course the executive producer of the film, Jim Jarmusch, producer Sara Driver in New York City, the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Talent Project Market, (who have been invaluable allies of the film) the Jerome Foundation, Media Program (the European Union’s main audiovisual development program (http://ec.europa.eu/culture/media/index_en.htm), the Independent Filmmaker Project in NYC, which runs our fiscal sponsorship campaign and supports the film with knowledge and an amazing network, and the generous support of other partners, such as the Arnie Glassman Foundation and private individual donors. We’re currently having conversations with other co-producers, distributors, transmedia partners, as well as sales companies from Us and EU but I can’t go into more details at this stage.

Sk: Film director Jim Jarmusch, who worked with Howard, is your executive producer. His features Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise, were influential works not only to the downtown New York City art film scene, but to the wider independent/art film movement. You mentioned that through this filmmaking process you have been exposed to the art and film created during this time and its staying power. Please elaborate.

Ab: New York City in the late 1970s was really the last place and time where two generations of artists overlapped and met and fed off each other. They lived in the same neighborhood, did the same drugs, went to the same clubs, and in some cases slept with the same people. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, much as they were artistic innovators for the way they completely broke the rules of literature, were also pioneering in the way they were open about their homosexuality and the way they put in their work.

Writer Brad Gooch, Howard’s long-time partner, told me that his and Howard’s was the first generation who really got to live openly when they got to New York. All the first love straight people get to experience in high school, gay men (and women) were experiencing at age twenty-five in downtown NYC against this epic backdrop of all sorts of art and space and time to create it. This sexual liberation really fed into the art scene. It was political without having a message, just by being.

The films that Jim Jarmusch and others were making at this time, they sort of applied the total lack of respect for rules that Burroughs and Ginsberg had laid in literature, and applied it to cinema. They took what they saw around them and put it in their work. And in the case of Howard making Burroughs: The Movie, with Jim and also Tom Dicillo who was doing camera, he went straight to the source. Howard decided not only am I going to apply the lack of rules, rule to movie-making, I’m gonna turn the camera on this moment in time as it’s really happening. I mean it’s incredible. They’re filming Burroughs at home, working out his speech to protest Proposition 6 in 1978, which Burroughs then incorporates into his reading at the Nova Convention -- to a packed-to-the-rafters theatre filled with 20 and 30-year-olds. Howard and his crew actually shot this.

There is just so much truth that shines through this work, and the work of that time like in Jarmusch’s films, and I think it’s because you had new artists’ energy directly side by side with the source. It was exceptionally rare, I think, historically, where one generation of artists so directly influenced another, only with the newer generation using a different medium, which of course was film.

Sk: You discovered more than 35 hours of film Howard shot from 1978-1983 that was stored in Burroughs’ bunker for 30 years. These reels include footage of Andy Warhol, Burroughs and Howard in the Chelsea Hotel, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa and Patti Smith. How did you learn about this footage?

Ab: James Grauerholz, who was very close friends with my uncle and co-produced Burroughs: The Movie, who is William Burroughs’ heir, early on when I was looking for a print of the film sent me a detailed inventory of everything Howard had stored in the bunker (Burroughs’ NYC residence). I looked at the list and my jaw dropped. Howard had finished Burroughs: The Movie with the BBC (who provided completion funds) in 1983. Sometime later they shipped back these giant trunks of all of Howard’s rushes, outtakes, workprints, and negative rolls. Howard didn’t have a permanent residence at that time because he was traveling the globe making his next film on theatre director , who was preparing six different international plays around the world to all come together for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. So Howard got these trunks of his films and asked Burroughs if he could stash it in the back room of the Bunker. And there it sat undisturbed for 30 years! After Burroughs died, John Giorno, who lived above the bunker, decided to keep it as a sort of museum to William. And of course along with Burroughs’ hat, canes, and spices from 1978, are Howard’s films.

Sk: What condition are the reels?

Ab: The negatives look great. The work-prints are all kind of pink, which happens to color film over time, but this is fixable with a good colorist as per example:

There’s a tiny bit of shrinkage, as photochemical film will shrink over time, but it is very minimal considering 30 years with no climate and humidity control. Only one roll was lost completely to severe water damage. It’s very fortunate really so much of it survived. It was a race against the clock. Film is a living breathing organic material.

Sk: How were you able to access them? Where was/is the bunker?

It was a complicated battle. I fought, with support, a dedicated fight that lasted for well over a year. It was extremely anxiety-provoking, as every day there was a potential risk these precious films could have been destroyed. For all I knew there could have been vinegar in the cans, which happens to deteriorated film. There was a lot of faith involved, a bit like the Kickstarter campaign. You can image what Hurricane Sandy did to my nervous system. It was indeed a race against the clock with all sorts of obstacles, and so stressful I had to document it to cope, and because it really illustrated an issue that’s central to my film, which is: What happens to the work created by artists when they are gone? And this is key to artists who died of AIDS as they generally did not have the time or resources to prepare for their legacy. So, now that is a part of my film. There was a more or less happy ending. But you’ll have to see the film to get the story! The Bunker is on the Bowery in NYC.

Sk: With some of the clips you’ve shown me, this is quite a treasure trove that captures an important history.

Ab: There is a definite staying power of the art from that time because of its authenticity, and also because of New York City; these film rolls capture what New York City was like! So much space. Desolate downtown streets. Gritty details. It’s just pure beautiful decay. No one watching you. It looks like artistic paradise. And I’ve seen Howard’s rental contract for his loft on Prince and Bowery: $100/month!

Sk: Film preservation is vital, and as you mentioned, it’s a race against the clock before more films are lost.

Ab: This is a huge issue. Hundreds of thousands of films that maybe aren’t necessarily directly on the Hollywood radar are really in danger of being lost forever. You got time working against you because film deteriorates. You got money working against you because it costs a lot to keep climate and humidity-controlled vaults. Traditionally, labs all had vaults, but labs are closing. If not very nearly all closed. So it comes down to institutions and their funding, space and ability. You also got technology working against you. How many people out there know how to fix a film splice or thread a projector, or read camera roll code? And how many people will know this in 30 years? Who’s going to know how to fix the old film machines that stopped seeing use decades ago? It really needs attention because we’re looking at a century of film facing extinction.

Robert Wilson is a majorly important figure in the theatre and art world. Most people don’t know about Howard’s second feature documentary, which took the audience inside Robert Wilson’s creative process, and emotional process of making his work. I know this because I found part of these original film rolls packed into unmarked Igloo picnic containers stashed in the supply room behind the toilet in an archive in Hamburg.

Sk: When and where will Smash the Control Machine have its premiere?

Ab: The film is currently in early production and there is a very strong element of unpredictability in this story, making deadlines pretty impossible. But, Berlinale really gave us great support at a very early stage, and it would be a very nice honor to premier the film with them in 2015. But we will need to keep working and see what unfolds. There is a long year ahead.

Sk: What are the distribution plans for Burroughs: The Movie and Smash the Control Machine ?

Ab: For Burroughs: The Movie, we’ll be unveiling the remastered Dcp (Digital Cinema Package) of the film at University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, followed by other Burroughs events throughout the year, such as at the Ica in London and the Photographer’s Gallery for their William Burroughs/Andy Warhol/David Lynch show.

The New York City premier will happen next fall at the New York Film Festival -- where the film first screened in 1983(!) -- possibly followed by a theatrical re-release and DVD/Blu-ray sale towards the end of the year. (Those who pledged for a DVD through our Kickstarter campaign however, will be sent their own copies of the film shortly.)

I’m also putting together a video art/sound installation piece from some of the never before seen material, that will show along with the film at Bafici in April, and likely in New York and London if not elsewhere. And we’re putting together a record with All Tomorrow’s Parties, using much of the never before heard audio from Howard’s Burroughs archive, to be sampled by select musicians.

For Smash the Control Machine: There are various plans I can’t discuss at this stage. What I can say is that our distribution will be tied to other impactful activities and events. I am working closely to build partnerships with those who care about the subjects of the film and the themes. Gentrification, Gay history, art legacy lost to AIDS. There are many great ways to distribute this film along these lines, as well as having a commercial release. My producer, PaulaVaccaro, and I are working hard to make sure this is tied up with whatever the film will do out there.

Sk: What advice do you have for aspiring documentary filmmakers?

Ab: Sometimes the best story for a film is right under your nose!

Breaking News: We are now working together with Janus Films and Criterion Collection for the distribution of Burroughs: The Movie. We are still creating a plan for the film although we know we will do a theatrical run in the Us sometime after the re-launch at the Nyff

See the Trailer Here

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting and film at Tufts University and presents international seminars. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com .

Frances Ha actor to take lead role in Miller's New York-set 'romantic comedy of manners', Maggie's Plan

Greta Gerwig has been cast as the lead in Maggie's Plan, the new film by Rebecca Miller, the latter's first directorial assignment since 2009's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

According to Deadline, Maggie's Plan is a "romantic comedy of manners", and quotes Miller as saying: "It's the story of a young woman and the joys and pitfalls of trying to make your own way in New York City."

Miller, who is also the author of recent novel Jacob's Folly, has made films sparingly, with only four previous credits since her debut, Angela, in 1995. However, she has clocked up an impressive awards ration, with Angela winning two prizes at Sundance, its 2002 follow-up Personal Velocity taking the Sundance grand prize and an Independent Spirit award.

Gerwig, who received plaudits for her role as a...

Lou Taylor Pucci first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller’s well-received Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, a small indie drama that was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002, from which it won the Grand Jury Prize. Pucci landed his first starring role in Thumbsucker, the movie directorial debut of music video director Mike [...]

Continue reading Evil Dead Reboot Adds Lou Taylor Pucci on FilmoFilia.

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HollywoodNews.com: Parker Posey, who gained the title “Queen of the Indies” through her string of popular independent features in the ’90s (“Personal Velocity,” “Best in Show,” etc.), finds what’s going on in the indie film world today “really hard” and “really painful.”

That would include moviemaker John Waters’ decision to pull the plug on his planned “Fruitcake” flick, to which Posey was attached, and his declaration last year that in this economy he was “going to have to do a puppet show.”

“I don’t want to lose the small stories that these independent directors create,” Posey says. “There are so many writers and directors out there who see things that would inspire and enlighten people about what it is to be a human being.”

She did make the forthcoming “Price Check” indie comedy in January, but, she says, “I felt sad at the end of each day.

Visionary film-maker at the forefront of American cinema's digital revolution

The director and producer Gary Winick, who has died of brain cancer aged 49, was at the forefront of American cinema's adoption of digital video (Dv), along with more high-profile names such as Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher. Winick believed that the discreet, lightweight equipment involved, and the flexibility it afforded film-makers, could lead to more direct and emotionally authentic movies, citing "the intimacy that occurs with the actors because of the small cameras". His own work, notably the 2002 coming-of-age story Tadpole, provided some persuasive evidence. His Dv-oriented production company, InDigEnt (Indpendent Digital Entertainment), gave others the funds and encouragement to experiment for themselves. While he insisted on preparation and professionalism ("Don't think that going digital means you can just 'wing it'," he advised newcomers), spontaneity lay at the heart of his approach: "One of the things I always say is:...

Director and producer Gary Winick, a friend and mentor to many in the independent film community, died Sunday afternoon in New York at the age of 49. The cause was brain cancer, a friend told Indiewire.

As the comments in that Indiewire piece — “an amazing mentor,” “a generous visionary,” “one of the finest human beings in our industry”— attest, Winick was a rare soul in the world of independent film. He was a smart, compassionate and truly giving person, and, even as his Hollywood career took off, he never forgot his roots. While he was crafting smart and heartfelt mainstream movies, he continued to advise, nurture and be a resource to a younger community of filmmakers who were still awaiting their own breaks.

Winick’s films include the tough and nuanced addiction drama Sweet Nothing, with Michael Imperioli and Mira Sorvino; the witty and improbably charming Tadpole, with Aaron Stanford, Sigourney Weaver...

Director who blazed a digital trail but had mainstream hits with Letters to Juliet and Charlotte's Web has died of a brain tumour

The Us director Gary Winick, a pioneer in the field of digital film-making who found commercial success with movies such as 13 Going on 30, Charlotte's Web and last year's Letters to Juliet, has died of a brain tumour. He was 49.

Winick's Hollywood calling card was the 2002 Sundance film festival hit Tadpole, a $150,000 film shot entirely using digital video cameras that won him the event's directing award. A subsequent career directing more mainstream movies left him with less time to pursue his work with InDigEnt – or Independent Digital Entertainment – a company he founded in 1999 to help independent film-makers use the new technology.

Winick always insisted that digital cameras helped bring the best out of actors. "You really don't feel the presence of that big mechanism of film," he told the Washington Post in 2002. "Instead,...

Following a long, tough battle with brain cancer, director/producer Gary Winick has died at the age of 49.His name might not have the instant recognition factor of, say, a Tarantino or a Scorsese, but Winick skipped easily between more mainstream films such as 13 Going on 30 and, more recently Letters to Juliet, and indie pics, most successfully with Tadpole.But it’s his contribution to other filmmakers’ work that might have even more resonance, since he co-created digital video collective IndigEnt with John Sloss and IFC Films, which helped get the likes of Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, Steve Buscemi’s Lonesome Jim and Richard Linklater’s Tape made on thrifty budgets.Winick got his start in horror, directing the 1989 film Curfew. His varied career saw him acting as an editor, producer or director on a raft of movies, including Sam the Man, Chelsea Walls, Charlotte’s Web, and, as mentioned above,...

As Hollywood celebrated yesterday, one of its independent voices quietly slipped away. Gary Winick, director of Letters to Juliet, Bride Wars and 13 Going on 30, died at age 49 following a long fight with brain cancer. Related: Anne Hathaway does a mean Katie Holmes impression Though most filmgoers probably know his work directing actress-friendly films starring Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson and Jennifer Garner, the director was also a force in independent film. As founder of InDigEnt, Winick produced 19 independent films over the last decade, including Ethan Hawke's Chelsea Walls, the Katie Holmes vehicle Pieces of April, Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity and his own Sundance...

Director, producer and entrepreneur Gary Winick passed away yesterday at the age of 49.  Winick is best known to mainstream audiences for directing "13 Going on 30," "Charlotte's Web," "Letters to Juliet" and "Bride Wars."  He died after a long battle with brain cancer and his passing is seen as a major loss in the New York independent film community. Besides his directorial efforts, Winick was also the co-founder of InDigEnt.  The pioneering digital video company was launched in 1999 and produced notable films such as "Pieces of April," "Personal Velocity" and "Tadpole," which Winick also helmed and was his launching...

Director Gary Winick, who helmed such studio films as Letters To Juliet, 13 Going On 30, Bride Wars and Charlotte's Web, has succumbed after a long battle with brain cancer at age 49.

Despite his commercial success, the Canadian Winick was also a big champion of independent films. He directed Tadpole and produced the low-budget Katie Holmes vehicle Pieces Of April (for which actress Patricia Clarkson received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod) as well as Personal Velocity, for which Winick won the 2003 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.

Rest in peace, Gary Winick.

The day of the Oscar ceremony is supposed to be the most celebrated night on the film calendar but Matt Dentler tweeted last night the tragic news that director Gary Winick had passed away, just weeks short of his 50th birthday.

“Gary Winick died today. Too late to make the Oscars tribute, but way too early. He leaves behind a legacy of supporting indie film and NYC.”

Winick was an active studio director, having turned in the melodrama Letters to Juliet just last year, and previously for helming Bride Wars, 13 Going On 30 and Charlotte’s Web. Without a doubt he was pivotal in the shaping of Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway and most recently Amanda Seyfried into genuine film stars, giving them a loving direction (his camera was always in love with his beautiful film stars & their locale) and a generous platform to shine – but according to Coming Soon, his biggest...

Gary Winick, the director of “Letters to Juliet,” “Bride Wars” and other films, died on Sunday after a long battle with brain cancer. He was 49. Winick was also the founder of the small independent film company InDigEnt, which produced “Pieces of April” and “Personal Velocity,” among others -- and, more imprtantly, helped usher in the digital era of indie film. Winick launched InDigEnt with IFC Films and Cinetic's John Sloss in 1999. He directed “Charlotte’s Web” and “13 Going On 30,” too, but was probably best known for pushing the boundaries...

Director Gary Winick passed away yesterday at the age of 49.  Winick's debut feature was the 1989 horror film Curfew, but his varied filmography spanned to include acclaimed indie dramas like 2002's Tadpole to lovable crowd-pleasers like 13 Going on 30.  However, as IFC points out in their obituary, Winick's most enduring legacy might be "InDigEnt, the collective he created with Cinetic's John Sloss and IFC Films to make films for under $100,000 on digital video." Through InDigEnt, Winick produced an array of celebrated indie films including Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity, Peter Hedges' Pieces of April, Richard Linklater's Tape, and Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim. Our deepest condolences go out to Mr. Winick's friends and family.

Producer-director Gary Winick sadly passed away last night at the age of 49 after battling brain cancer for several years. Here's what his longtime manager, Rosalie Swedlin had to say about the director's passing.

"He was suffering from brain cancer for quite some time, and it ultimately metastasized throughout his body. What's remarkable is that after his first surgery, he was able to direct Letters to Juliet. It was a battle that we thought he had won, and ultimately they just didn't get it all."

Aside from directing movies such as Bride Wars, Charlotte's Web, 13 Going on 30, and Tadpole, Gary Winick founded InDigEnt, an independent production company which produced 19 indie features since being founded in 1999. InDigEnt is also noted for sparking the digital revolution, using digital cameras to produce high-quality indie films with budgets under $100,000.

Filmmaker Matt Dentler first announced the passing of Gary Winick over Twitter last night. Here's what he had to say.