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[Editor’s note: The following interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023.]

Geraldine Viswanathan seems like the kind of gal you can kick off a conversation with — a professional one, to boot — by way of owl-based non sequitur. Indeed, you can, as the perpetually rising (and that’s Ok!) it girl and constant “breakout star” (she’s been here!) is about as easy and fun an interview subject as anyone would desire to have.

Where you know Viswanathan from depends on your taste in entertainment: the Emmy-nominated Aussie has been working since the age of 4 (when she booked her first commercial) and has appeared in a range of roles ever since, from the raunchy (and smart) teen 2018 comedy “Blockers” to the TBS anthology comedy series “Miracle Workers.” She’s done plenty of indies and had a recurring role on the animated comedy gem “BoJack Horseman.”

And yet, every time Viswanathan pops up in a new project, people seem to be reminded all...

Al Gore's daughter and her husband, the lead singer of the band Ok Go, made a movie about Beanie Babies starring Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks. No, that's not a Mad Lib; that's real, and it's really, really good. Better than probably anyone would've expected. In fact, The Beanie Bubble is one of the best films of the year.

Galifianakis stars as Ty Warner, though you may be more familiar with his name in lower-case white, encased in a red heart. Warner is the eccentric toy manufacturer behind Beanie Babies, and Galifianakis gives arguably his best performance yet as the impetuous, selfish man-child. However, it's the women he meets along the way that helps shape the film and define its thematic functions. Non-linear but stylistically linked editing takes viewers through roughly 15 years of Warner's life, from his early business partner and lover (Elizabeth Banks), to a later fiancée (Sarah Snook...

Moon Student (noun)

An individual who endures a shattering defeat, but uses it to become a student of life.

A person on a mission to dig deeper into everything, to find out who they are, and to uncover what their true purpose/mission is in life. Someone spurred on to grow after a devastating loss.

That's the terminology touted by the new film Moon Students, which is set to be a charming and obviously topical indie comedy-drama that very well may make Sydney Carvill a star. Written, produced, and directed by Daniel Holland, the film is a reflection of our collective traumas over the past few years, starring the magnetic Carvill (Adalynn) as the most prominent member of a friend group who tries to endure and adapt to Covid-19, protests, and sociopolitical chaos as their lives and school experience are upended. You can check out an exclusive clip and more about the film below.

Exclusive: Bella Heathcote (Pieces of Her) and Asif Ali (Don’t Worry Darling) will lead the survival drama Roof, marking the directorial debut of Salvatore Sciortino, which has wrapped production in Los Angeles.

The films tells the story of two co-workers who accidentally get locked on the roof of a skyscraper during the hottest holiday weekend in years. Lacking any water and unable to communicate with the outside world, they attempt increasingly dangerous ways to escape as their health rapidly deteriorates in the heat. At the same time, an unexpected friendship blooms as they mutually realize just how badly they have wrecked their lives.

Josh Tate wrote the script and is producing alongside recent Sundance Producing Lab Fellow, Austin Sepulveda. The film was supported by a grant from Curt Willis and the Visit Knoxville Film Office, with part of the shoot having taken place in Knoxville.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to...

Fest runs September 8-18.

An on-stage conversation with Taylor Swift and the feature Biosphere produced by the Duplass Brothers have been added to TIFF programming.

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey will interview pop icon Swift under the In Conversation With… Industry Conference banner on September 9.

The star will discuss filmmaking and the visual aspects of her music following the first screening of All Too Well: The Short Film on 35mm which she wrote, directed and produced.

Biosphere will play in Special Presentations on September 10 and marks the feature directing debut of Mel Eslyn, the long-time president of Duplass Brothers Productions whose producing credits include Room 104,...

Veteran producer Mel Eslyn’s feature directorial debut Biosphere, starring Emmy winners Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), will be making its world premiere as a surprise Special Presentation at the 47th edition of the Toronto Film Festival. The film will make its festival bow in the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre at 2:30 p.m. on September 10th.

Set in the not-too-distant future, the latest feature from Duplass Brothers Productions follows the last two men on Earth as they adapt and evolve to save humanity. Eslyn directed from her script written with Mark Duplass. She also produced alongside Zackary Drucker, Maddie Buis and Shuli Harel, with Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass serving as executive producers.

Take Two: The Fall Film Festivals’ Must-See Movies From Venice To Telluride To Toronto To New York

“I can’t wait for Toronto audiences...

Preparing for an upcoming flight isn’t just limited to packing your clothes and toiletries — have you thought about how you’re going to keep yourself entertained? The idealist in all of us might say we’re gonna read that book we’ve been putting off, but depending on the length of your flight, that may be easier said than done. If it’s on the longer side, it can be easy to get distracted and start to really feel the minutes crawling by.

The good news is that in recent years,...

Circle of Confusion, the talent management and production company behind “The Walking Dead,” has joined production and finance outfit Carte Blanche and Roadmap Writers’ genre screenwriting competition.

Josh Dove at Circle is handling their side of the partnership alongside Kyle Stroud and Frank Ponce at Carte Blanche and Joey Tuccio and Dorian Connelley at Roadmap Writers.

Carte Blanche will be greenlighting and fully financing at least one genre film. The script will have no more than five characters and five locations, and will focus on a contained, character-driven story. “Timecrimes,” “Buried,” “Monsters,” “Locke,” “Another Earth” and “Oxygen” serve as artistic inspiration.

The competition’s jury consists of producer Liz Cardenas (“7 Days”), Carolina Groppa, who is the executive in charge of production at Issa Rae’s ColorCreative, Giselle Johnson of Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems and Pixar alumnus Colin Levy, who is currently developing sci-fi series “Skywatch” for Peacock. They will decide the top three scripts,...

Exclusive: Kristen Konvitz has joined UTA as an Agent in the Independent Film Group division. She will work from the agency’s Los Angeles headquarters, reporting to Partners Jim Meenaghan and Rena Ronson, who serve as Co-Heads of the Independent Film Group.

Konvitz comes to UTA from ICM, where she worked as an Agent in the Independent Film Group. She spent over five years at the agency prior to its acquisition by CAA, there working to structure and arrange financing, assemble and secure distribution for independent films.

Konvitz has brokered distribution deals on dozens of films coming out of such major festivals as Cannes, Sundance, TIFF and SXSW, among others. Her recent projects include Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Silent Twins, SXSW Audience Award winner Pretty Problems, Sundance Best Director winner Palm Trees and Power Lines, and Spike Lee’s American Utopia. Additionally, she has negotiated...

The Covid-19 pandemic spawned its own genre of sorts: the quarantine film, which examines the bizarre, disorienting early days of the crisis as people confined themselves to their homes. In this realm of sometimes heavy movies, one of the lightest and most charming is “7 Days,” which uses this setup for an opposites-attract rom-com.

Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan star as Ravi and Rita, two polar opposites who are set up on a pre-arranged date by their traditional Indian families in early March, 2020. The date goes extremely poorly, but the two are forced to quarantine together for the first few days of the pandemic in Rita’s home, and as they spend more time together, they slowly develop a genuine friendship that shows the potential to blossom into something more.

Soni wrote the script for “7 Days” with his real life partner, director Roshan Sethi, during the earliest period of quarantine,...

It wasn’t until Karan Soni was getting ready to premiere “7 Days” at Tribeca Film Festival that he asked himself, “What did we make?”

Not even a year prior, he and his partner – director Roshan Sethi – conceived of the idea for a romantic comedy about twentysomething Indian Americans Ravi (Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan), whose pre-arranged date goes from bad to worse when they’re forced to spend a week quarantining together.

In just five days, Soni and Sethi whipped together a script and got to work assembling a cast and crew, getting the Duplass Brothers to produce and choosing an Airbnb for the set. True to its title, the film took about a week to shoot. No wonder Soni hadn’t had a chance to catch his breath.

Ironically, the hyperspeed project was born from a period of soul-crushing inertia. In June 2020, the actor found himself in the midst of a Covid-induced crisis.

7 Days has been on the festival circuit for some time, and has ben charming audiences along the way. The movie, shot during the initial lockdown, has finally been released in theaters in the US, and to mark the occasion, we spoke lead actor Karan Soni, and director Roshan Sethi, who also co-wrote the screenplay together.

We discuss cultural sensitivity, and how important it is to be authentic when writing and depicting traditions on screen. The pair, who are also an item, talk about their collaboration process, and also what it was about lead actress Geraldine Viswanathan that made her the perfect choice for the role. They look over arranged marriages, Covid, and they look back on the imprint the Duplass brothers have had on indie cinema, as they served as producers on this production.

Watch the full interview with Roshan Sethi and Karan Soni here:

Synopsis

Set up on...

Most movies about the pandemic have not directly addressed the actual illness of Covid-19, but most movies aren’t written and directed by real-life doctors. Over the last two years, independent filmmakers have risen to the challenges presented by smaller crews and daily testing, producing inventive takes on remote learning like “Language Lessons,” or provocative livestream thrillers like “Deadstream” and “Dashcam.”

But few have managed to show a character suffering from the effects of Covid, much less in a romantic comedy. Shot in a single location with a two-person cast and set during the first week of the pandemic, “7 Days” is a snappy and scrappy rom-com that doesn’t shy away from the human cost of Covid.

That’s entirely due to director and co-writer Roshan Sethi, who moonlights as an oncologist at one of the country’s top hospitals for nine weeks out of the year.

“It was...

A24’s SXSW opener Everything Everywhere All At Once, Bleecker Street’s Infinite Storm and Sony Pictures Classics’ Mothering Sunday offer something that’s been rare of late at the specialty box office, fresh content and choice.

They’re in a market with only one new studio wide release, Paramount’s The Lost City with Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock. And if that film does okay it’s a nice win for everyone, said a specialty distribution executive, since it appeals to an older and female demo that’s been hard to win back to theaters. He’s got fingers crossed that the variant of the Omicron variant won’t make a new dent in the very slowly reviving market for non-superhero films. He and others have noted week after week that no specialty recovery is really possible in any case without the consistent flow of new content that we’re just starting to see.

Rita and Ravi have exactly one thing in common: tTheir traditional Indian families are eager to set them up with a suitable spouse, Asap. Ravi (Karan Soni) is all-in on the idea, zipping through first date after first date, tracking his possible paramours with a meticulous spreadsheet, perpetually ready to float the idea that he wants three kids, and does his maybe-Mrs. want three too? Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan) is less amped on the idea, putting up with her mother’s demands because otherwise she’s likely to close the purse strings, leaving Rita out on her ass. Does she want three kids? Dude, Rita doesn’t know what she wants.

Conceived of and shot during the first months of the pandemic — first-time filmmaker Roshan Sethi is also, get this, a physician, and he spent the earliest months of lockdown working in a Covid ward — When we first meet Rita and Ravi,...

Exclusive: 7 Days, the romantic comedy from The Resident co-creator Roshan Sethi that stars Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni, now has a release date and a trailer. Cinedigm, which acquired the pic in November after its premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, will release it wide in theaters March 25.

The news comes as the rom-com is up for an Independent Spirit Award this weekend for Best First Feature.

Soni (Deadpool) and Viswanathan star in the film, which was co-written by Sethi and Soni, partners in real life. The plot revolves around a pair of Indian-American twentysomethings who find themselves bonding in unusual circumstances following a dud date set arranged by their conservative parents.

Zenobia Shroff, Aparna Nancherla, Gita Reddy and Mark Duplass also star. Liz Cardenas and Mel Eslyn are producers, with Jay and Mark Duplass, Soni, Sethi and Viswanathan executive producing. Maddie Buis is co-producer.

Check out the trailer above.

Turns out love and hookup seekers aren’t the only ones who fib online. In the winning indie rom-com “7 Days,” two mothers gin up glowing profiles for their children on an Indian marriage website. After a decidedly arid date at a drought-dried reservoir, Ravi and Rita wind up at her rental home. Each of them stands within feet of the other, on the phone reporting how brilliantly the date went to their inquisitive mothers. It comes as no surprise (romantic comedy or otherwise) that when Ravi meets Rita, the two realize quickly that maintaining those lies isn’t worth it. At least, keeping up the ruse between them isn’t sustainable.

Karan Soni portrays Ravi, a guy who has many of the qualities his mother touted: a good cook, very bright, loyal and youngest of three boys, but in a combination that makes for a spectacularly uptight mama’s boy.

As cities across the world were forced to issue mandatory lockdowns at the start of last year’s Covid-19 pandemic, some Internet commentators light-heartedly pointed out that quarantine felt like a narrative trope right from a rom-com. So it’s not surprising to see this premise come to life in the heartfelt (if sometimes clunky) 7 Days, a funny and emotionally stirring debut from director and writer Roshan Sethi. It’s a contrivance that could have fallen into traps of predictability very quickly, but Sethi keeps the concept fresh by cleverly infusing it with a twist—a pragmatic set-up for an arranged marriage that quickly unravels in a world similarly spiraling out of control.

The film opens with a warm series of videos featuring real, long-time Desi couples who have been asked to talk about their arranged marriages. Each relay how they met, setting the tone for our story between Ravi...