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In “Italian Studies,” Vanessa Kirby gets lost in New York. This shimmering wisp of a drama — in theaters and on VOD this Friday — offers a breezy pre-pandemic portrait of the city, following an author who wanders its crowded sidewalks and falls in with its young minds after inexplicably losing her memory. As hazily directed and ever so slightly written by Adam Leon, “Italian Studies” is less about solving the mystery of Alina’s sudden amnesia than asking how her surroundings might fill the wiped-clean slate of her identity in with vivid details (read our review here).

Continue reading Vanessa Kirby On ‘Italian Studies,’ Memory Plays & Ridley Scott [Interview] at The Playlist.

Cinereach announced the four recipients of 2019’s Producer Award, a $50,000 filmmaking prize as part of the Cinereach Producers Initiative, on Friday.

The indie film company has selected Jessica Devaney (“Always in Season”), Alexandra Lazarowich (“Fast Horse”), Kishori Rajan (“Random Acts of Flyness”) and Jamund Washington (“Tramps”) as independent producers that have demonstrated vision and integrity, contributed to the film community as mentors and leaders, and enriched the culture through their films.

“This year’s group of recipients is particularly exciting because Jessica, Alexandra, Kishori and Jamund have each created poignant, culturally thoughtful work that breaks down barriers on a multitude of platforms. Their commitment to this type of work is shifting our industry in meaningful ways,” Merrill Sterritt, head of partnerships and creative initiatives at Cinereach, said in a statement.

Also Read: How to Be a 'Real' Producer: Know Your Audience and 'Fight for Your Life'

“We are proud to...

Exclusive: Production has just wrapped in New York City on an untitled film that Adam Leon wrote and directed, and which Vanessa Kirby starred in. Kirby won the BAFTA for The Crown, and co-starred in Mission Impossible: Fallout, and wrapped Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. Leon’s recent films are Gimme the Loot and Tramps.

The story is being kept under wraps. It was developed by Leon in close consultation with Kirby for many months in advance of shooting. Kirby is also an executive producer on the film.

Animal Kingdom, which teamed with Leon on Tramps, produced alongside Topic Studios and Tango Entertainment.

Individual producers include Jamund Washington and Animal Kingdom’s Brad Becker-Parton, Andrea Roa and Joshua Astrachan.

Hulu has confirmed that several of its original series will be debuting new episodes on the streaming service in July, including the first season of the highly anticipated Stephen King thriller “Castle Rock” as well as season 2 of the costume drama “Harlots” and season 4 of the comedy “Casual.”

And there will also be new to Hulu seasons of some of your favorites from other networks, including season 2 of “The Strain,” season 4 of “The Vikings” and season 8 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Likewise, there will be plenty of movies making their first Hulu appearances including the first five films in the “Star Trek” franchise and the Oscar-winning “Rosemary’s Baby.”

See Netflix schedule: Here’s what is coming and leaving in July

Available July 1: TV

Alaska: The Last Frontier: Complete Season 4 (Discovery)

Deadliest Catch: Complete Season 11 (Discovery)

Deadly Women: Complete Season 6 (ID)

Dual Survival: Complete Season 5 (Discovery)

Elementary: Complete Season...

When attending American film festivals, I’ve often felt a twinge of envy for the Cannes Film Festival’s competition section: Here, a festival’s competition slot is a rite of passage, where filmmakers establish themselves before moving on; there, it’s a permanent destination. Cannes’ competition houses few rookies and implies only a select few films deserve consideration for the venerable Palme d’Or, reflecting elitist standards specific to Gallic culture. While a little elitism can go a long way, it has the power to drive international debates and create grand discussions about the medium. At a moment of extreme uncertainty about the future of the movies, that comes in handy.

So why are there no major American film festivals celebrating homegrown auteurs? Among the major North American film festivals, only a handful of feature competition sections carry a measure of prestige, but the Sundance Grand Jury Prize stands...

Goodbye, Summer TV; hello, what was once the prime TV season for new shows and is now just a Peak TV free-for-all. Broad City The Good Place are, thankfully, back; meanwhile, HBO goes all in on a drama about the Seventies porn renaissance, Ahs takes on the 2016 election and a new Star Trek boldly goes where several of its predecessors have gone before. Here’s what you need to tune in to this month.

American Horror Story: Cult (FX, Sep. 5th)

Per usual, Ryan Murphy's managed to keep a...

Last week, in response to the news that Netflix had finally cracked the Cannes competition lineup (a breakthrough that inspired the Federation of French Cinemas to question if a movie that skips theaters should even be considered “a cinematographic work”), I wrote about the streaming giant and how they’ve performed as a distributor. My conclusions were, uh, not super favorable. Criticizing the company’s penchant for pricing out the competition, hoarding the hottest indies on the festival circuit, and burying them on their site without the benefit of a proper release, I argued that Netflix isn’t a distributor so much as “a graveyard with unlimited viewing hours,” and that “it doesn’t release movies, it inters them.” It’s a problem that extends to the well-funded features that Netflix produces themselves, a problem that’s only going to get worse as those titles continue to get better.

See MoreNetflix Keeps Buying Great Movies,...

‘Straight to Netflix’ needn’t be a derogatory term – there are still gems to be found on the streaming platform

“If a movie premieres on Netflix, is it still even a movie?” asked the American film critic David Ehrlich last week, stoking an ongoing, still-heated industry debate over the streaming giant’s handling of the new films it exclusively acquires, making them skip the cinema circuit entirely. For more tradition-bound cinephiles, “straight to Netflix” has the same stigma “straight to video” once did, though in the case of so-called Netflix Originals such as Adam Leon’s Tramps, it really shouldn’t.

Leon turned heads at Cannes a few years ago with his sparky urban caper Gimme the Loot; his equally bright-eyed but more woozily romantic follow-up confirms that promise. Like Leon’s debut, it’s a lively run around the fringes of New York City. Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten,...

With only two feature films under his belt to date, writer/director Adam Leon has made a big noise by using very little. His breakout film, “Gimme The Loot,” was fresh, exciting, and low-key caper film that captured the attention of SXSW, Cannes, and beyond. For his followup, Leon tells another intimate, authentic New York City story with “Tramps.” Premiering last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, it may not have had glitzy A-list stars, but the crowd-pleasing charmer sparked a small bidding war, with streaming titans Netflix coming out on top.

Continue reading The Movies That Changed My Life: ‘Tramps’ Director Adam Leon at The Playlist.

Ah, to be young, restless, maybe in love, and beholden to criminals. Therein lies the rascally appeal of Adam Leon’s second feature “Tramps,” which, coming after his similarly endearing (and similarly New York-set) debut “Gimme the Loot,” quickly establishes Leon as indie cinema’s most fleet-of-foot urban romantic. The echoes of fast-talking, flirty couples from screwball through French New Wave, from Woody Allen through every promising Woody wannabe, reverberate through this zippy, well-acted tale of a guileless aspiring chef (Callum Turner, “Queen & Country”) and a tart-tongued sharpie (Grace Van Patten) thrown together on a two-day adventure through the hubs and.

A heist movie and romance that manages to defy the expectations of both genres, “Tramps” is a low-key charmer that quietly gains your affection. The latest from “Gimme The Loot” director Adam Leon may not have grabbed the biggest headlines at Tiff last fall where it premiered, but it says something that Netflix snapped it up. And it’s one you’ll want to add to your queue.

Continue reading Romance & Crime Collide In First Trailer For Netflix’s ‘Tramps’ at The Playlist.

Please allow a moment of silence for “Tramps,” Adam Leon’s warm and winsome follow-up to SXSW 2013 winner “Gimme the Loot.” Anchored by a ridiculously charismatic performance from actress Grace Van Patten, Leon’s sweltering, casually modern riff on classic Hollywood comedies like “It Happened One Night” tells the story of two kids who fall in love during a wild goose chase around the outer edges of New York City. It’s delightful stuff, diverting by design but told with the confidence of someone who can endow even the lightest fare with a real sense of weight. It was hardly the most significant thing I saw at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but watching it on a hot summer day with the lights off and the AC on full blast was one of the most purely enjoyable experiences I had there.

Of course, you’re going to have...

After earning acclaim with his debut feature Gimme the Loot, director Adam Leon is back with Tramps, which was one of our favorite films coming out of Toronto International Film Festival last year. Arriving in less than a week on Netflix, they’ve now released the first trailer for the rom-com-meets-crime-film starring Green Room‘s Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten (The Meyerowitz Stories, Under the Silver Lake) and featuring a score from Moonlight‘s Nicholas Britell.

“Whereas countless criminal endeavors of this ilk quickly turn into a race against time with someone kidnapped as collateral under threat of being maimed or killed, Leon really isn’t interested in such cliche,” we said in our review. “As it is, Tramps was born out of his and co-writer Jamund Washington’s desire to simply deliver fun romance at the movies. The dead-drop concept was created afterwards to provide a means for connection.

"We gotta get that briefcase." Netflix has debuted a trailer for indie romantic comedy Tramps, from writer & director Adam Leon, of the NYC film Gimme the Loot previously. The story follows an aspiring chef in NYC who gets caught up in a crazy adventure when he has to help his brother finish a drug deal. But when the briefcase exchange goes wrong, he ends up running all over the city trying to figure out how to get things back in order. Callum Turner stars, along with Grace Van Patten, Michal Vondel, Mike Birbiglia, Margaret Colin, Louis Cancelmi, and Rachel Zeiger-Haag. I guess the unique twist in this is that he falls for the driver girl, which is kind of nice to see. It definitely feels like an indie, but has lots of heart, too. Here's the first official trailer for Adam Leon's Tramps, direct from Netflix's YouTube: In Tramps,...

Like a divine consolation for our collective heartache, the world was gifted with an absurd volume of beautiful new things to listen to in 2016. But epochal new albums from the likes of Radiohead, Anohni, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and the sisters Knowles (to name just a few) only told a small part of the story, as much of the year’s best new music was Trojan horse-ed into our lives via the movies.

The Best of 2016: IndieWire’s Year in Review Bible

Conner4Real wrote pop songs as catchy and profound as anything by The Weeknd, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling exchanged a series of bittersweet ballads, and a Polynesian princess followed her voice over the horizon. But it was the instrumental pieces that cut the deepest, as many of the best new films were proudly inextricable from their scores. “Moonlight” and “La La Land,” currently dominating the awards circuit,...

Netflix’s buying spree that started at the Toronto International Film Festival isn’t over yet. The streaming giant picked up another Tiff entry this week by acquiring worldwide rights to the romance-heist movie “Tramps” for a reported $2 million. The film had its world premiere on September 10 at Tiff, which wrapped on September 18.

Read More: Reports of a Weak Market Are Greatly Exaggerated: Tiff Acquisition Market Heats Up as Distributors Claim Hot Titles

Netflix’s acquisition of writer-director Adam Leon’s (“Gimme the Loot”) second film comes following the company’s purchase of worldwide rights to director Vikram Gandhi’s Barack Obama movie “Barry” for a reported $4.5 million last weekend. The company also bought U.S. and select international rights to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie “What Happened to Monday?” from director Tommy Wirkola. The streaming giant is expected to add additional Tiff titles in the coming weeks.

Netflix ended up...

If you’ve ever been desperate enough to retreat into the Michigan wilderness and employ alchemy as a means of attaining wealth, you’re in luck! Joel Potrykus’ (“Buzzard,” “Ape”) latest feature, “The Alchemist Cookbook,” does just that and then some.

The good news: All that fresh air and solidarity can really give you time to think on things. The bad news: You might accidentally summon Satan. Watch the film’s newest trailer below.

Read More: The Indiewire Springboard: Joel Potrykus Makes Weird Little Movies In Michigan. Now He’s Fielding Offers From Hollywood. What’s Next?

In the new trailer, Ty Hickson (“Gimme the Loot”) stars as Sean, a hermit who ventures out into the forest in an attempt to materialize money via alchemy, but winds up discovering some something much more terrifying. Juxtaposing dark comedy with bizarre horror, Sean’s descent into madness is as absurdly eccentric as it is grim.

Earlier this year, filmmaker Joel Potrykus had the NYC debut of his latest film “The Alchemist Cookbook” at the eight annual BAMcinemaFest. Starring Ty Hickson of “Gimme the Loot,” with Amari Cheatom of “Newlyweeds” fame in the only supporting role… Continue Reading →...

There have been few first features in recent years as charming as Adam Leon’s “Gimme the Loot,” and now that quality is starting to look like a motif. “Tramps,” Leon’s follow-up to his prize-winning debut, delivers another brisk and scrappy tale of lovable young hooligans on the cusp of a busy inner city world and searching for their place within it. “Tramps” doesn’t break new ground or offer much in the way of surprise developments; its cutesy setup adheres to familiar rules. At the same time, Leon’s sophomore effort has more polish to its entertainment value, matched by playful energy indicative of a mature storyteller in tune with his material. It’s certainly one of the better American romcoms in recent memory, although the competition’s not especially fierce.

Leon’s a knowledgable cineaste who draws from the right stuff with the shrewd hand of a...

Though we wish more people had seen it, Adam Leon’s 2012 film “Gimme The Loot” is one of the best films about being young in recent years. Detailing the story of two young New York graffiti artists attempting to break into Citi Field, it had an inventive energy, a richness, and a great soundtrack that […]

The post Tiff Exclusive: First-Look Clip From ‘Gimme The Loot’ Director Adam Leon’s ‘Tramps’ Starring Callum Turner & Grace Van Patten appeared first on The Playlist.

Adam Leon’s fleet-footed Gimme the Loot was a giddy discovery out of SXSW in 2012. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize there, it went on to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and announced Leon as a promising new voice in American independent film, one who married specificity of character and location with keen storytelling chops. Four years later, Leon has made a follow-up feature, Tramps, which premieres in Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema section. Once more, there’s a man and a woman — in this case, rising stars Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten — and a peripatetic caper. Here, […]...

Exclusive: WestEnd Films boards Animal Kingdom-produced rom-com starring rising UK actor Callum Turner.

Ahead of its world premiere in Toronto, WestEnd Films has boarded Tramps, the sophomore feature from Gimme The Loot writer-director Adam Leon.

Rising British actor and former Screen Star Of Tomorrow Callum Turner (BBC-twc’s War & Peace) stars in the rom-com, which is produced by Joshua Astrachan (Short Term 12) and David Kaplan (It Follows) of New York indie maestros Animal Kingdom, alongside Andrea Roa (Drinking Buddies) and Jamund Washington (Gimme The Loot). Washington also shares a story by credit on the film.

Green Room star Turner plays opposite another rising actor Grace Van Patten, who recently wrapped on Noah Baumbach’s upcoming untitled comedy with Emma Thompson, Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman.

In Tramps, Ellie (Van Patten) and Danny (Turner) are an unlikely pair of would-be criminals thrown together over two New York City summer days. Their misadventures...

Exclusive: WestEnd Films boards Animal Kingdom-produced rom-com starring rising UK actor Callum Turner.

Ahead of its world premiere in Toronto, WestEnd Films has boarded Tramps, the sophomore feature from Gimme The Loot writer-director Adam Leon.

Rising British actor and former Screen Star Of Tomorrow Callum Turner (BBC-twc’s War & Peace) stars in the rom-com, which is produced by Joshua Astrachan (Short Term 12) and David Kaplan (It Follows) of New York indie maestros Animal Kingdom, alongside Andrea Roa (Drinking Buddies) and Jamund Washington (Gimme The Loot). Washington also shares a story by credit on the film.

Green Room star Turner plays opposite another rising actor Grace Van Patten, who recently wrapped on Noah Baumbach’s upcoming untitled comedy with Emma Thompson, Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman.

In Tramps, Ellie (Van Patten) and Danny (Turner) are an unlikely pair of would-be criminals thrown together over two New York City summer days. Their misadventures...

Exclusive: WestEnd Films boards Animal Kingdom-produced rom-com starring rising UK actor Callum Turner.

Ahead of its world premiere in Toronto, WestEnd Films has boarded Tramps, the sophomore feature from Gimme The Loot writer-director Adam Leon.

Rising British actor and former Screen Star Of Tomorrow Callum Turner (BBC-twc’s War & Peace) stars in the rom-com, which is produced by Joshua Astrachan (Short Term 12) and David Kaplan (It Follows) of New York indie maestros Animal Kingdom, alongside Andrea Roa (Drinking Buddies) and Jamund Washington (Gimme The Loot). Washington also shares a story by credit on the film.

Green Room star Turner plays opposite another rising actor Grace Van Patten, who recently wrapped on Noah Baumbach’s upcoming untitled comedy with Emma Thompson, Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman.

In Tramps, Ellie (Van Patten) and Danny (Turner) are an unlikely pair of would-be criminals thrown together over two New York City summer days. Their misadventures...

A great many shows and movies are coming to Hulu next month, some more notable than others. To skip the chaff and go straight to the wheat, allow us to collate and curate a selection of the most notable titles available to stream in July:

“48 Hours” and “Another 48 Hours”

“The Aviator”

“Berberian Sound Studio”

“Broadway Danny Rose”

“The Brothers Bloom”

“Devil’s Pass”

“Dirty Wars”

“Dirty Work”

“‘Don’t Look Now”

“Escape From Alcatraz”

“Finding Neverland”

“Fish Tank”

“Flashdance”

“Gimme the Loot”

“Glory”

Read More: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Reed Morano To Direct Elisabeth Moss In The Hulu Series

“Hackers”

“Hunger”

“The Hunt for Red October”

“In the Loop”

“Jimmy P”

“Liberal Arts”

“Like Someone in Love”

“The Loneliest Planet”

“Lonesome Jim”

“Manderlay”

“Me and You and Everyone We Know”

“Mommie Dearest”

“Phoenix”

“Rosemary’s Baby”

Read More: ‘Transparent’ Ratings Lag Behind Rivals on Netflix & Hulu

“Sightseers”

“Simon Killer...

Last night, filmmaker Joel Potrykus had the NYC debut of his latest film “The Alchemist Cookbook” at the eight annual BAMcinemaFest. Starring Ty Hickson of “Gimme the Loot,” with Amari Cheatom of “Newlyweeds” fame in the only supporting role (outside… Continue Reading →...

McCaul Lombardi (who’ll be on the Croisette in the featured Andrea Arnold’s American Honey quartet comprised of Sasha Lane, Shia Labeouf and Arielle Holmes) will topline and Tashiana Washington (Gimme the Loot), recording Artist Breezay and veteran actor James Belushi (who’ll next be seen in Katie Says Goodbye) are part of the make-up of indie Baltimore based helmer Matt Porterfield‘s Soller’s Point.

Continue reading...

I was graced with the opportunity to talk shop on The Alchemist Cookbook, a SXSW gem that saturated all three of its screenings with starved festival foodies, with writer/director Joel Potrykus. Buzzfeed has genred it horror, but I'd be damned before I stuck the film a label. Joel and I talk a little about what happened behind the scenes on this divisive, unignorable beast, of a film. Take a look.

Joel lays it out for us:

So I was here two years ago with Buzzard, and it got a great reception... And the one place we knew this could exist at is, again, South By Southwest. Because it’s super uncommercial, and not at all for the mainstream and I’m super stoked to bring it here. I wanted to do something totally different from Buzzard. No white people, no cities... But, people tell me, it still has the...

We’d like to give as much insight into the project other than cast list and title, but Adam Leon‘s sophomore film has been existing somewhere off the radar. His debut became the Cinderella story of 2012 for micro-budgeted American indies. Gimme the Loot won the Grand Jury – Best Narrative Feature prize at the 2012 SXSW Film Fest and then became one of the rare SXSW-selected titles to break into Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. Nominated for the Gotham Awards’ Breakthrough Director Award and both a nominee (for Best First Feature) and winner (Someone to Watch Award) at the Indie Spirits Awards, we imagine that the coin helped fund his larger-budgeted follow up. Working with another young cast, Tramps includes actors Callum Turner (Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room) and newcomers Grace Van Patten and Michal Vondel.

Gist: Tbd.

Production Co./Producers: Dark Arts’ Andrea Roa (Unexpected), Joshua Astrachan...

What I like about a fest such as Sundance, is that it’s not only a place where we’ll find semi-star vehicle material with players in the indie biz, but they also launch the careers of new directors and is loaded with fresh faces. King Jack is the type of film that falls into the later category. Two time SXSW short filmmaker Felix Thompson began filming in this past summer and while we think there is a great deal of polishing involved, the pic, which was selected for the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab fellow program has a legit shot.

Gist: Starring Christian Madsen, Charlie Plummer, Danny Flaherty, Cory Nichols and Erin Davie, when shouldered with the responsibility of watching his younger cousin for the weekend, a delinquent 15 year-old (Plummer) finds himself stumbling towards maturity while struggling against the neighborhood bully.

Production Co./Producers: Buffalo Picture House’s Gabrielle Nadig,...

Exclusive: Marks the first feature from commercials director Rohan Blair-Mangat.

Shooting has begun in New York City on The Boombox Project, the first feature from award-winning commercials director Rohan Blair-Mangat.

Further locations in the documentary’s multi-territory shoot will include Miami, Los Angeles, London, Brazil and Tokyo.

The film is co-written by Blair-Mangat and Lyle Owerko and draws inspiration from Owerko’s 2010 book The Boombox Project: The Machines, the Music, and the Urban Underground, which includes a foreward from Spike Lee.

The documentary explores how an iconic piece of machinery helped shape music and society on both sides of the Atlantic in the ’70s and ’80s, examining its place in the rise of hip-hop and punk.

From the boombox’s origins as a ‘sonic campfire’ for urban youth to share music and ideas to its gradual re-appropriation in popular culture with the emergence of the Walkman, MTV and the CD player, the film considers...

Ifp announced its 2014 slate of 133 new films in development and works in progress selected for its esteemed Project Forum at Independent Film Week. This one-of-a-kind event brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new projects by nurturing the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers. Through the Project Forum, creatives connect with financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. Under the curatorial leadership of Deputy Director/Head of Programming Amy Dotson & Senior Director of Programming Milton Tabbot, this one-of-a-kind event takes place September 14-18, 2014 at Lincoln Center supporting bold new content from a wide variety of domestic and international artists.

“As we set to embark on our 36th Independent Film Week, we are impressed by the outstanding slate of both U.S. and international projects selected for this year’s Project Forum,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of Ifp. “We know that the industry will be as excited as we are with the accomplished storytellers and their diverse and boundary pushing films.”

Featured works at the 2014 Independent Film Week include filmmakers and content creators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. From documentarians Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How To Nail A Dictator"), and Penny Lane ("Our Nixon") to Michelangelo Frammartino ("Quattro Volte") and Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), as well as new work from critically acclaimed artists and directors Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"), Travis Matthews ("Interior. Leather. Bar") and Yen Tan ("Pit Stop").

Independent Film Week brings the international film and media community to New York City to advance new documentary and narrative works-in-progress and support the future of storytelling. The program nurtures the work of both emerging and established independent artists and filmmakers through the facilitation of over 3,500+ custom, one-to-one meetings with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences. In recent years, it has also played a vital role in launching the first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene including Rama Burshtein ("Fill The Void"), Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), Marshall Curry ("If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth LIberation Front"), Laura Poitras ("The Oath"), Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") and Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild").

For the full 2014 Project Forum slate visit Here

New For 2014

Evenly split between documentary and narrative features, selected projects hail from throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada, as well Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. New this year, Ifp will be including web series in it programming, as well as spotlighting Latin & Central American artists and content with 15 projects featured across all programs in the Forum.

In a joint effort to recognize the importance of career and creative sustainability, Ifp and Durga Entertainment have partnered on a new $20,000 filmmaker grant for an alumnus of Ifp. The grant is intended for active, working filmmakers who are also balancing a filmmaking career with parenting. The grant provides a $20,000 unrestricted prize to encourage the recipient to continue on her or his career path of making quality independent films. American directors or screenwriters working in narrative film who have participated in the Ifp Filmmaker Labs or Ifp Independent Film Week's Emerging Storytellers or No-Borders International Co-Production market are encouraged to apply by the deadline of August 8, 2014.

Narrative Feature Highlights

Narrative features and webseries in Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers and No Borders International Co-Production Market sections highlight new work from top emerging and established creative visionaries on the U.S. and international independent scene.

This year’s slate includes new feature scripts featuring directors Dev Benegal ("Road, Movie"), Alexis Dos Santos ("Unmade Beds"), Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin ("Now, Forager"), Michelangelo Frammartino ("Le Quattro Volte"),Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Rashaad Ernesto Green ("Gun Hill Road"), Aurora Guerrero ("Mosquita Y Mari"), Barry Jenkins ("Medicine for Melancholy"),Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), Travis Mathews ("Interior. Leather Bar"), Stacie Passon ("Concussion"), Yen Tan ("Pit Stop"), as well as up-an-coming actor/directors Karrie Crouse ("Land Ho!") and Peter Vack ("Fort Tilden""I Believe in Unicorns").

Producers and executive producers of note attached to participating projects include Jennifer Dubin and Cora Olson ("Good Dick"), Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams ("Hellion"),Laura Heberton ("Gayby"), Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Kishori Rajan ("Gimme the Loot"), Adele Romanski ("The Myth of the American Sleepover"), Kim Sherman ("A Teacher"), Susan Stover ("High Art"), and Alicia Van Couvering ("Tiny Furniture").

Web Storytellers Highlights

For the first time this year, Ifp presents a dedicated spotlight within the Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program for creators developing episodic content for digital platforms. The inaugural slate for the Web Storytellers spotlight includes new works from filmmakers Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior", HBO’s Girls), Calvin Reeder ("The Rambler"), and Gregory Bayne ("Person of Interest"), as well as producers Elisabeth Holm ("Obvious Child"), Susan Leber ( "Down to the Bone"), and Amanda Warman ("The Outs,"Whatever This Is"). Two of the series participating are currently in post-production, and will be making their online debut in the coming months – Rachel Morgan’s Middle Americans, starring Scott Thompson, Carlen Altman, and Alex Rennie, and Daniel Zimbler and Elisabeth Gray’s Understudies, starring Richard Kind and David Rasche. [p Spotlight On Documentaries Highlights

The documentary selection includes new work from seasoned non-fiction directors such as Emmy winners Robert Bahar andAlmudena Carracedo ("Made in La"), Pamela Yates ("Granito: How to Nail a Dictator"),Ramona Diaz ("Imelda," "Don’t Stop Believin’") Gini Reticker ("Pray the Devil Back to Hell") Tony Gerber ("Full Battle Rattle"); from producers such as Court 13’s Benh Zeitlin and Dan Janvey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Liran Atzmor ("The Law in These Parts"), Tim Williams ("Once In A Lifetime") and Hilla Medalia ("Web Junkie"), and follow-up second features from recent doc world “breakouts”Steve Hoover ("Blood Brother") Penny Lane ("Our Nixon"), Michael Collins ("Give Up Tomorrow"), and Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker ("Flex is Kings").

Exciting new work from debut documentary directors previously known for fiction films include Alex Sichel ("All over Me") with her personal doc The Movie about Anna, Lisa Cortés (producer, "Precious") with "Mothership: The Untold Story of Women and Hip Hop," and Daniel Patrick Carbone ("Hide Your Smiling Faces") with Phantom Cowboys.

Sponsors

Independent Film Week’s Premier sponsors are Royal Bank of Canada (Rbc) and HBO. Gold sponsors are A&E IndieFilms and SAGIndie. Silver sponsors are Durga Entertainment, Eastman Kodak Company, National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa and Telefilm Canada. Official Independent Film Week Partner is Film Society of Lincoln Center. Independent Film Week is supported, in part, by funds provided by the Ford Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts and Time Warner Foundation.

About Ifp

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp, a new incubator space developed with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Ifp represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 35-year history, Ifp has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, including Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.

Both Kings and Jacks are wild this summer as Screen Daily reports that filming on King Jack is set to begin this summer. Directed by two time SXSW short filmmaker Felix Thompson and produced along with Buffalo Picture House’s Gabrielle Nadig and Dominic Buchanan of Gimme the Loot fame (a rare SXSW to Un Certain Regard selection), the project is a note-worthy trade item in our books because Nadig was among the select few (same time last year actually) to be named as a Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab fellow (other producers with project include still in development items from Brett Potter (producer on Andrew Renzi’s The Fort) and Chris Ohlson (producer for Zellner Bros.’ Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter). Whitewater’s Rick Rosenthal, Bert Kern and Nick Morton are exec producing, and so are Stink’s Daniel Bergmann and Martin Forbes. Corey Deckler co-produces.

Gist: Starring Christian Madsen,...

Last night at a showing of Think Like a Man Too I was thrilled to see a trailer for the upcoming Gina Prince-Bythewood movie Beyond the Lights. It’s the story of the romance between a vulnerable young woman on the brink of pop stardom (Belle breakout actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Nate Parker (Non-Stop). Hello, sold. But I was already in because of Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed one of my favorite romances, 2000′s Love and Basketball. The movie, which stars Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps, just earned snaps in the second season of Orange Is the New Black when,...

Our International Sales Agent (Isa) of the Day coverage is back again for this year's Cannes Film Festival. We will feature successful, upcoming, innovative and trailblazing agents from around the world, and cover the latest trends in sales and distribution. Beyond the numbers and deals, this segment will also share inspirational and unique stories of how these individuals have evolved and paved their way in the industry, and what they envision for the new waves in global cinema.  

Udi was established in Paris ten years ago as an international film sales agency and then expanded into coproduction and domestic distribution. It only features first-rate and award winning international art house films, including Las Acacias (Caméra d'Or), Octubre (jury prize for Uncertain Regard at Cannes), and Gimme the Loot, the winner of SXSW in 2012. Udi also has a special focus on Latin American films, thanks to its head of sales and acquisitions Eric Schnedecker. He explains more about Udi and its admirable lineup:

Please share more about your background:

I've always been in entertainment. It's my passion. I worked for Arte in France, but also worked with companies in the U.S., Spain, and Italy, including Disney, Universal and the Turner network. I was mostly in acquisitions and programming.

European companies are very open to the world in general. They're very adaptable. My experience living in many countries in the east and west gives me an understanding of intercultural sensitivity. People in the industry are coming from many countries, and need someone who cares about their culture and history.

I'm based in New York, which gives Udi the advantage of being on two continents. This allows for better relationships in the U.S. For example, I'm working companies like HBO, Starz, and Netflix.

 

Please discuss some highlights from Udi's Cannes lineup:

We've always been dealing with big art house directors. We're trying to find higher profile movies with bigger directors and cast. We have a film here at this year's festival called Insecure starring Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color) and Reda Kateb, who was in Zero Dark Thirty and The Prophet. He's also in the Ryan Gosling film here at the festival - there's a lot of attention on this film, as it's part of the Acid selection.

We have another film from Kazakhstan, which is called The Owners; it's a fun story. I see it as Kaurismaki's Leningrad Cowboys. It's really a dark comedy / rock and roll film that denounces the corruption of the country. The government of Kazakhstan didn't want it to be a part of the festival because they weren't happy with this portrayal. Regardless, Cannes decided to make it an official selection. 

We have some very promising films coming for the next festivals (Venice, San Sebastian, Toronto).  There's one with Peter Mullan called Hec McAdam - it's a social drama in the Ken Loach style. There's another film called Felix and Meira. It's a French Canadian romantic film in three languages: Yiddish, French and English. It's a love story between a French Canadian and a Hasidic woman married with a daughter. This stars Hadas Yaron who won best actress for Fill the Void at the Venice Film Festival last year.

Where are your films coming from?

We really try to have great films from everywhere, including France. We've been very lucky for the last five years with Latin America (Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru), which I helped to bring to the company. Many of these films have had great success in festival competitions and sales. Las Acacias, which won the Caméra d'Or in 2011, has been a major triumph for us and has sold to more than 20 countries. Another film called Octubre from Peru won the Jury Prize for Un Certain Regard in 2010. This year in Berlin, Natural Sciences from Argentina won the Generation competition. 

 

How are sales?

Sales are doing ok. The market is very competitive and challenging. There are way too many movies on the market. We're also at a moment in the industry where distribution is switching to a new model that we kind of know, but don't know exactly what it's going to be.

It's a new beginning and a big opportunity for the art house world, even though people haven't completely figured out how to monetize it. It's just like when TV first came and there weren't many TVs. These transitions are always critical time where people are either complaining or enjoying new ways to be.

With the rise of the Internet, many people were predicting the fall of television, and that's not the case. It's been a very creative and adventurous time for TV, more so than film. 

These days, you see television is bringing a lot of financing to the movie industry.

More about Udi:

See Lineup for Cannes Film Festival here.

Udi international arthouse films by promising young filmmakers and renowned directors whose films distinguish themselves through innovation and originality. Since its creation in 2004 by Frédéric Corvez, Udi has always been driven by the same goal: bring quality cinema to the largest audience possible on every continent.

2014 is here but that doesn't mean the tabulating of 2013 will end just yet. Everyone is still using the holiday season to catch up on the year that was before jumping into the year ahead, and yet another Top 10 is upon us. This time around, it's indie filmmaker Lynn Shelton, who released her own "Touchy Feely" last year, dropping her fave movies of 2013, in no particular order it seems. And as you might guess, the movies that stuck with the filmmaker were more under the radar pictures like the Kathryn Hahn/Juno Temple starring "Afternoon Delight," SXSW hit "Gimme The Loot," Mark Webber's "The End Of Love" and Lake Bell's "In A World." That said, Shelton likes her popcorn just like the rest of us, and gives a thumbs up to Edgar Wright's "The World's End" while also giving some love to Spike Jonze's "Her." Check it all out below.

In the lead-up to the unveiling of our definitive Top 50 Movies of 2013 list, we’ve asked some friends of Paste to tell us their favorites of the year. Tune in for a different list each day. Today’s contributor is Adam Leon, the director of this year’s ‘Gimme the Loot’ (pictured) and winner of the Someone to Watch Award at this year’s Indie Spirits....

A few days ago, we asked the online film community to rack their brains and submit their Top 10 films of 2013 for our annual poll. An incredible 94 movie bloggers answered the call, and we have sorted through the deluge of entries to find out what a handful of online journalists have deemed the best films of the year.

If you have a favourite journalist – or would like to follow other like-minded film fanatics through the power of the internet – you can find the blogger’s twitter account and website above their individual lists, which were compiled in no particular order and only take UK release dates into account. These various entries were then collated to bring about the definitive top 10. Have a look at the results below:

Predictably, it’s a landslide victory for Alfonso Cuarón’s magnificent space epic Gravity. Also of note however is the eclectic nature of the final results,...

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" received the most nominations at the 2013 Gotham Awards but in the end, the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" took home the big award of the night -- the Best Feature award. Matthew McConaughey also beat "12 Years a Slave's" Chiwetel Ejiofor with his memorable, feel it in your bones performance as a dying AIDS patient in "Dallas Buyers Club."

Is this a sign to come this awards season? Stay tuned!

Here's the complete list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 2013 Gotham Awards:

Best Feature

12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films)

Before Midnight

Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch,...

The Gotham Awards, established to honor the best in independent film, have announced the 2013 winners. The Coen Brothers's Inside Llewyn Davis won Best Picture. Matthew McConaughey took home Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club. Short Term 12's Brie Larson beat out prohibitive Oscar favorite Cate Blanchett for Best Actress. Fruitvale Station dominated the "breakthrough" categories: Ryan Coogler won Breakthrough Director for his first feature and star Michael B. Jordan won Breakthrough Actor. The Act of Killing rounds out the awards with a win for Best Documentary. Hit the jump for the full list of nominees and winners. Winners are bolded in green: Best Picture 12 Years a Slave Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Before Midnight Inside Llewyn Davis Upstream Color Best Documentary The Act of Killing The Crash Reel First Cousin Once Removed Let the Fire Burn Our Nixon Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award Ryan Coogler – Fruitvale Station...

While technically this was Forest Whitaker’s big night (Actor Tribute plus the weight he threw behind as a producer accolades for a small San Fran based film), if tonite’s Gothams awards informs us on how future noms might pan out for the “bigger” award shows, it’s that there are no tapering off signs for Fruitvale Station, that a Coen bros. film Inside Llewyn Davis has just become a partner alongside 12 Years a Slave as the front-runner for Best Picture slots for the Indie Spirits and Oscars, and that Joshua Oppenheimer should get the ultimate speech ready for The Act of Killing. Ryan Coogler’s big Sundance winner went 2 for 2 in the Breakthrough Director and Actor categories, while the heart, soul and spirit of Short Term 12 in Brie Larson rightly beat out her group of peers to win the Best Actress award. Here’s hoping that it picks up steam elsewhere.

This is a tough awards season! Lots of great movies to see, so little time! I'm catching up like crazy before we vote for the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for the Broadcast Film Critics Association. So I apologize if I haven't updated you with the latest on the awards season 2013-2014! And there were many award-giving bodies announcing nominations.

We already told you about the Rome Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, now let's talk about the 2013 Gotham Awards, the Ida Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye, and the Producers Guild announcing its best documentary choices.

First stop, we have the 2013 Gotham Awards where Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" topped the nominations with three nods including best feature, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong'o.

Winners will be announced on Dec. 2nd where Richard Linklater, Forest Whitaker, and Katherine Oliver (head of the NYC...

Composer Nicholas Britell ("Gimme the Loot") provides a powerful musical accompaniment for Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" with a series of spiritual-field songs and stringed waltzes (which are currently available on the Columbia Records soundtrack). These originals and recreations enable us to better understand and appreciate the rich musical heritage that sprung from such inhumanity. "My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise)," an original, opens the movie, appropriately enough, with slaves chopping sugar cane in rhythmic sync, while another original, "Yarney's Waltz," is a string tune in the spirit of the period. However, in arranging three other traditionals -- the fiddle tune, "Devil's Dream," the cast's version of "Roll Jordan Roll," and the Virginia Reel, "Money Musk" -- Britell was compelled to go on a vital research expedition, since there are no recordings or notations from the era. "It was a rare chance to explore the music of the 1840s," Britell recounts.

In the lead-up to the Gotham Independent Film Awards on December 2nd, Ifp announced it will hold a screening series to highlight the nominees of the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. From Thursday, November 21 through Saturday, November 23, the category’s five directorial debuts will screen at the new Made in NY Media Center by Ifp in Dumbo. The films are Stacie Passon’s Concussion; Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station; Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot; Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice; and Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine. Adam Leon, Alexandre Moors, and Sun Don’t Shine lead actors Kentucker Audley and Kate Lyn Sheil will be on hand for a Q&A following their respective screenings. […]...

In the lead-up to the Gotham Independent Film Awards on December 2nd, Ifp announced it will hold a screening series to highlight the nominees of the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. From Thursday, November 21 through Saturday, November 23, the category’s five directorial debuts will screen at the new Made in NY Media Center by Ifp in Dumbo. The films are Stacie Passon’s Concussion; Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station; Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot; Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice; and Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine. Adam Leon, Alexandre Moors, and Sun Don’t Shine lead actors Kentucker Audley and Kate Lyn Sheil will be on hand for a Q&A following their respective screenings. […]...

2013 Gotham Awards 2013: Nominations (photo: Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett in ’Blue Jasmine,’ directed by Woody Allen) See previous post: “Gotham Awards Nominations: No Oscar Guarantee (or Even Likelihood)?“ Best Feature 12 Years A Slave. Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films) Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors; Scott Rudin, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, producers (CBS Films) Upstream Color, Shane Carruth, director; Shane Carruth, Casey Gooden, Ben LeClair, producers. Best Documentary The Act Of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, director; Signe Byrge, Joshua Oppenheimer, producers (Drafthouse Films) The Crash Reel, Lucy Walker, director; Julian Cautherly,...

When the 23rd Gotham Independent Film Award nominations were announced earlier this week, Ryan Coogler ("Fruitvale Station"), Adam Leon ("Gimme The Loot"), Alexandre Moors ("Blue Caprice"), Stacie Passon ("Concussion") and Amy Seimetz ("Sun Don't Shine") were named in the Bingham Ray Breakthrough DIrector Award category. In case you missed the films in theaters (some are still showing in select theaters), you can still watch (or pre-order) them on iTunes. Click on the links below: Fruitvale Station Gimme The Loot Blue Caprice Concussion Sun Don't Shine...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave leads this years Gothams award noms with three, but well-received Sundance items in Blue Caprice, Concussion, Fruitvale Station, Upstream Color and the Cannes preemed Inside Llewyn Davis find themselves all in the hunt for trophy-ware with a pair of nominations each. In the heavyweight Best Feature category, David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (oddly no mention in the acting categories) and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color go up against the Coens and McQueen. The 23rd Gotham Independent Film Awards will take place on December 2nd. Here are the categories:

Best Feature

12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes,...

The Gotham Independent Film Awards go out of their way to get a jump on everyone, and in doing so they become almost completely irrelevant. The voting board hasn't seen unfinished films like The Wolf of Wall Street or American Hustle, so how can this be a true appraisal of the year's best movies? At best, the Gotham Awards try to shine a light on movies that will probably be overlooked during the award race, but still deserve attention. I'm sure plenty of my fellow critics would love it if Upstream Color received the attention a Best Picture Oscar nomination would provide, but that will never happen. But for the Gotham Awards, it can get a Best Picture nomination right alongside likely Oscar nominee 12 Years a Slave. Hit the jump for a full list of nominees. The winners will be announced on December 2nd. Via Gotham Awards: Best Picture 12 Years...

The Gotham Independent Film Awards rolled out its nominations today, with 12 Years a Slave leading the pack with three nominations, including Best Feature. Kicking off the awards season as one of the first major awards ceremonies, the Gotham Independent Film Awards highlight independent films and recognize breakthrough performances. This year’s awards added the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, and the winners will be announced Dec. 2.

Forest Whitaker and Richard Linklater will receive special tributes at the ceremony.

The complete nominations after the jump:

Best Feature

12 Years a Slave

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Before Midnight

Inside Llewyn Davis...