Staff Blogs

Non-competing titles for Sundance

The Sundance Institute has released a list of the non-competing films in the 2008 festival. For a list of competing films, see yesterday's news post.

Premieres
Assassination of a High School President
Be Kind Rewind
CSNY Deja Vu
The Deal
Death in Love
Diminished Capacity
The Escapist
The Great Buck Howard
The Guitar
Henry Poole is Here
In Bruges
Incendiary
The Merry Gentleman
A Raisin in the Sun
Savage Grace
Sleepwalking
Smart People
Towelhead (f.k.a. Nothing is Private)
Transsiberian
U2 3D
The Visitor
What Just Happened?
The Year of Getting to Know Us
The Yellow Handkerchief

Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight
Anvil! The True Story of Anvil
The Black List
Kicking It
The Linguists
Made in America
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
Young@Heart

Spectrum: Dramatic Spotlight
August
Baghead
Birds of America
Blind Date
Bottle Shock
Chronic Town
Goliath
A Good Day to be Black & Sexy
Love Comes Lately
Momma's Man
Quid Pro Quo
Red

New Frontier
Casting a Glance
Eat, For This is My Body (Mange, Ceci est Mon Corps)
Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du Noir)
Half-Life
Reversion
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Parts 4 and 5

Park City at Midnight
Adventures of Power
The Broken
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
Donkey Punch
Funny Games
Hell Ride
Otto; Or, Up With Dead People
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes)

Sundance '08 will run from January 17-27 2008 in Utah.

Categories: Festivals and Awards
0 comments Posted Friday November 30 2007 4:20 AM Permalink

Academy offers matte painting exhibition and panel discussion

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is opening a matte painting exhibition in the foyer of the Linwood Dunn Theater, celebrating the works of such artists as Peter Ellenshaw, Albert Whitlock, and Matthew Yuricich.

For the uninitiated, matte painting is the process of painting a background to be inserted into a shot via the matte process. This allows filmmakers to create vast, expansive backdrops without having to physically build a massive set. Originally performed with oil paints on glass, nowadays it is generally performed inside a computer but some artists prefer to paint on canvas and then scan it into a computer. I have used it myself on several occasions for replacing blown-out skies and can boost production values considerably.

There is also a panel discussion with prestigious matte painters and camera operators, hosted by Academy governor Craig Barron.

The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. The exhibition is free and the panel is $5 for the public and $3 for Academy members and students. Both events open on Monday December 10th 2007.

Read more about the exhibition
Read more about the panel

Categories: Industry, Festivals and Awards
0 comments Posted Thursday November 29 2007 3:43 AM Permalink

Sundance reveals 2008 competition films

The Sundance Institute has released a list of the 121 feature films that are competing at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. Tomorrow it will release a list of non-competing films being shown at the festival.

Documentary
An American Soldier
American Teen
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Fields of Fuel
Flow: For Love of Water
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
I.O.U.S.A.
Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)
The Order of Myths
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Secrecy
Slingshot Hip Hop
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
Trouble the Water

Dramatic
American Son
Anywhere, U.S.A.
Ballast
Choke
Downloading Nancy
Frozen River
Good Dick
The Last Word
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
North Starr
Phoebe in Wonderland
Pretty Bird
Sleep Dealer
Sugar
Sunshine Cleaning
The Wackness

World Cinema Documentary
Alone in Four Walls
The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins
Be Like Others
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures
Derek
Dinner With the President
Durakovo: The Village of Fools (Durakovo: Le Village Des Fous)
In Prison My Whole Life
Man On Wire
puujee
Recycle
Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma
Up the Yangtze
The Women of Brukman (Les Femmes de la Brukman)
Yasukuni

World Cinema Dramatic
Absurdistan
Blue Eyelids (Parpados Azules)
Captain Abu Raed
The Drummer (Jin. Gwu)
I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster (J'ai Toujours Reve d'etre un Gangster)
Just Another Love Story (Kaerlighed Pa Film)
King of Ping Pong (Ping Pongkingen)
Mancora
Megane (Glasses)
Mermaid (Rusalka)
Perro Come Perro (Dog Eat Dog)
Riprendimi (Good Morning Heartache)
Strangers
Under the Bombs (Sous les Bombes)
The Wave (Die Welle)
The Wind and the Water (Burwa dii Ebo)

Sundance '08 will run from January 17-27 2008 in Utah.

Categories: Industry, Festivals and Awards
0 comments Posted Thursday November 29 2007 12:51 AM Permalink