10 articles

8 hours ago

Traditional film school is overrated, according to Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Werner Herzog, who has signed on to teach an online filmmaking class. “You spend way too much time in film school. It costs way too much money. You can learn the essentials of filmmaking on your own within two weeks,” said Herzog in the (above) trailer for his class. The new class, which will focus on the art of both feature and documentary filmmaking, will be offered as part of the online education platform MasterClass. Pre-enrollment is open to everyone and the class will become available this summer. “Werner Herzog vibrantly and charismatically […] »

- Paula Bernstein

17 May 2016 5:18 PM, PDT

Though he wrote the novel on which David Fincher’s 1999 hit Fight Club was adapted, novelist Chuck Palahniuk has never written a screenplay. That will change with the upcoming film adaptation of the author’s 2002 novel Lullaby. Palahniuk will executive produce and co-write the screenplay with director Andy Mingo. Along with producer Josh Leake, the team has turned to Kickstarter to raise $250,000 to fund production of the film. Lullaby follows the life of Carl Streator, an over-the-hill reporter whose family mysteriously died years earlier. Palahniuk wrote the novel during the murder trial of the man eventually convicted of murdering his father. “Chuck doesn’t […] »

- Paula Bernstein

17 May 2016 3:10 PM, PDT

While making a first film is notoriously difficult, making a second film can often be even more challenging. To help a talented crop of filmmakers avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump,” the Sundance Institute today unveiled the FilmTwo Initiative. Led by the Institute’s Feature Film Program, with support from Founding Partner NBCUniversal, the FilmTwo Initiative will offer 13 directors creative and strategic guidance in navigating the unique challenges of making their second feature films. The inaugural FilmTwo Fellows are Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Shaz Bennett (Alaska is a Drag), Bernardo Britto (Jacqueline (Argentine)), Steven Caple Jr. (The Land), Jonas Carpignano (Mediterranea), Marta Cunningham […] »

- Paula Bernstein

17 May 2016 12:23 PM, PDT

Though smallpox has been eradicated, stocks of the virus remain for research purposes. Should these samples be destroyed in order to prevent them from being used as a biological weapon? Demon in the Freezer, the compelling short documentary from Academy Award-winner Errol Morris (The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara), explores the issue as part of The New York Times Op-Docs series. The film is Morris’ eighth film published by Op-Docs and the 200th Op-Doc video since the series launched in 2011. “It all comes down to the question of how best to protect ourselves against ourselves. […] »

- Paula Bernstein

17 May 2016 10:48 AM, PDT

I really ought to have more faith in Jim Jarmusch. Here’s an artist who, despite routinely delivering cinematic UFOs time and again, is still capable of surprising me with works that feel sui generis not only with regard to world cinema, but to his own filmography as well. Paterson, which is not even close to the “slight” or “minor” effort early reports claimed were threatening to land it in a sidebar (low key, sure, but so what?), manages to restate a number of Jarmusch’s pet motifs and themes in a tenor I’d not yet experienced in his work—at least not […] »

- Blake Williams

16 May 2016 4:14 PM, PDT

Finding political resonance within the intimate story of a blind man, his past, and the Lebanese countryside, Tramontane is the debut feature of filmmaker Vatche Boulghourjian. Based in Beirut, Boulghourjian studied at Nyu Film School, and his filmmaking draws upon the community he found in both his home and place of study. Premiering in Critics’ Week at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Tramontane also received early development support from the Venice Biennale College Cinema, where I was one of its mentors several years ago. At the time, I was struck by Boulghourjian’s intelligence, empathy and ability to articulate the larger […] »

- Scott Macaulay

16 May 2016 4:08 PM, PDT

Little Men, director Ira Sachs’ latest film, premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was warmly received. The story of a friendship between two NYC middle schoolers whose parents become embroiled in a real estate conflict, Little Men takes a personal look at the damaging effects of gentrification. Starring newcomers Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz as the titular boys and Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle and Paulina Garcia as their parents, Little Men will hit select theaters on August 5, with a nationwide rollout to follow. The sensitive drama gets its first trailer (above) courtesy of distributor Magnolia Pictures. »

- Paula Bernstein

16 May 2016 12:43 PM, PDT

Although this may not sound as remarkable as it is, the Maryland Film Festival (Mff) thrives on being filmmaker-friendly. Encouraging attending filmmakers to participate in a closed-door, multi-hour group conference designed to serve as a safe space to voice their career concerns and hosting a rocking evening of karaoke performed on a stage at The Windup Space (which uncannily resembles the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks), Mff works hard to keep participating artists in dialogue with one another. In screening spaces as the Maryland Institute College of Art (Mica), the Walters Art Museum, and the intimate black-box Single Carrot Theater, it’s not uncommon […] »

- Erik Luers

16 May 2016 9:08 AM, PDT

Until filmmaker, novelist, and funnywoman Rebecca Miller weighed in with the invigorating Maggie’s Plan, the history of films addressing the impasse between order and randomness — in theological terms, the conflict between free will and determinism — has rested on the mature products of profound Western European minds. Bresson’s Au Hasard, Balthasar and Dreyer’s Gertrud, for example, are stark, minimalist, and melancholic, with a divine presence at the very least implied. In Miller’s movie, intellectual musings are negligible in the fate debate. Destiny, whether embraced or resisted, is built into something more palpable: the actions of her quirky characters. Her earlier […] »

- Howard Feinstein

16 May 2016 3:01 AM, PDT

Cristi Puiu’s enigmatically titled (and spelled) Sieranevada was the first and longest Palme d’Or hopeful to be screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the notoriously impetuous press corps. Puiu, whose The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) is often thought of as the foundational ripple that set off the ongoing so-called Romanian New Wave, has a reputation as being his country’s most uncompromising and rigorous player, and his latest three-hour appointment furthers the trend in an equally pale if far less misanthropic portrait of contemporary Romania. Sieranevada is a self-consciously long, loquacious, and unstructured film, bloated and macho and […] »

- Blake Williams

10 articles

IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.