American New Wave 25: Anthony Burns

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Indie filmmaker Anthony Burns officially became a part of the Indiewood landscape earlier this year when he preemed his directorial debut Skateland in Park City, but Burns who has a background in writing learned the ropes by cutting his teeth in the Hollywood system serving as assistant to the executive producer on CW’s Hidden Palms and CBS’s pilot Law Dogs. In an interview we conducted earlier in the year, Burns credits his start when he made the big move from Austin to L.A., “there I got involved with some strong producers working in television and film. This led to numerous projects including a featurette I co-wrote and produced titled ‘The Smoking Compartment’ in early 2008.” The following year is where he developed his feature film project and churned out a horror indie thriller screenplay titled Red Velvet for Bruce Dickson – the pic stars Henry Thomas and Kelli Garner (see trailer).

Anthony Burns IONCINEMA.com Indie Top 25

Since the Sundance preem, Skateland has been selected in the top tier of the early in the year U.S film festivals with stops at SXSW, Dallas Int. Film Festival and the Seattle Int. Film Festival this past May, and despite Burns’ great soundtrack ear, strong sense of storytelling and character development and him being technically solid behind the camera, the coming-of-age film starring Ashley Greene, Brett Cullen, Shiloh Fernandez and charismatic Heath Freeman is got picked up during Cannes by Camelot Entertainment. Expect to see the film theatrically released sometime late in the year or in 2011.

 

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society), FIPRESCI and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

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