Search results for: Paul Andrew Williams

The noms are in folks (see full list below) and apart from the love that The Blind Side has received (the backlash has officially began around 9 eastern this morning), there are very little surprises -- which only means status quo on films and people that officially received the cold shoulder months ago.

While I've yet to see the doc myself (I reference Claire Denis' White Material when I think of what the film might hold narratively), when the Cinema Eye Honor Noms were released I was surprised to see that, despite the positive buzz, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's Mugabe and the White African only manage to grab one nomination. Clearly the film is a favorite for the 2009 edition of the IDA Awards - it picked up three nominations in the Feature Documentary, ABCNews VideoSource Award an the Pare Lorentz Award categories.

The current issue of Filmmaker Magazine has hit kiosks and the only reason why I'd be pointing this out is because it includes its annual "25 New Faces" feature (available here) which is basically: a sampling of the future voices, filmmakers, editors, actors and cinematographers who in the opinion of the magazine's editors represent the future of independent filmmaking and who, I admittedly know only two of the twenty-five.

So how does Yojiro Takita's Departures (Okuribito) beat out heavy favorites Israel's Waltz With Bashir and France's The Class? Smart pick ups and adequate marketing plans just don't cut it when it comes to promoting titles for Oscar campaigns and Sony Pictures Classics seemed to have botched, undersold both titles the moment the final five titles were announced.

Based on pure speculation and educated guesses, in anticipation of the 25th Sundance Film Festival, I’ve assembled a lengthy list of films that might be announced in next week’s press releases for selection announcements in everything from the Competition categories to the Premieres and the fringe Park City at Midnight.